Political Culture and Good Citizenship

Political Culture and Good Citizenship Political culture is a widely shared set of ideas, attitudes, practices, and moral judgments that shape people’s political behavior, as well as how they relate to their government and to one another. In essence, the various elements of a political culture determine the people’s perception of who is and is not a â€Å"good citizen.† To an extent, the government itself can use outreach efforts like education and public commemorations of historical events to shape political culture and public opinion. When taken to excess, such attempts to control the political culture are often characteristic of the actions of totalitarian or fascist forms of government. While they tend to reflect the current character of the government itself, political cultures also embody the history and traditions of that government. For example, while Great Britain still has a monarchy, the queen or king has no real power without the approval of the democratically elected Parliament. Yet, while doing away with the now largely ceremonial monarchy would save the government millions of pounds per year, the British people, proud of their tradition of over 1,200 years of being ruled by royalty, would never stand for it. Today, as always, a â€Å"good† British citizen reveres the Crown. While political cultures vary greatly from nation to nation, state to state, and even region to region, they generally tend to remain relatively stable over time. Political Culture and Good Citizenship To a great degree, political culture implies the characteristics and qualities that make people good citizens. In the context of political culture, the traits of â€Å"good citizenship† transcend the government’s basic legal requirements for attaining citizenship status. As Greek philosopher Aristotle argued in his treatise Politics, simply living in a nation does not necessarily make a person a citizen of that nation. To Aristotle, true citizenship required a level of supportive participation. As we see today, thousands of lawful permanent resident aliens and immigrants live in the United States as â€Å"good citizens† as defined by the political culture without becoming fully naturalized citizens. Traits of Good Citizens Good citizens, in their daily lives, demonstrate most of the qualities considered important by the prevailing political culture. A person who lives an otherwise exemplary life but never works to support or improve the community by taking an active part in public life may be considered a good person but not necessarily a good citizen. In the United States, a good citizen is generally expected to do at least some of these things: Take part in the representative democracy by registering to vote and voting in elections.Run for elected office or volunteer to serve on appointed governing boards.Obey all federal, state, and local laws.Show up for jury duty if called.Be knowledgeable of the basic freedoms, rights, and responsibilities contained in the U.S. Constitution.Pay all applicable federal, state, and local taxes.Remain knowledgeable about political issues and government policy.Volunteer to take part in community improvement programs.Take part in patriotic observances and traditions, like standing for the National Anthem and knowing the Pledge of Allegiance. Even within the United States, the perception of political culture - thus good citizenship - may vary from region to region. As a result, it important to avoid depending on stereotypes when judging a person’s quality of citizenship. For example, people in one region may place more importance in strict observance of patriotic traditions than those in other regions. Political Culture Can Change Though it often takes generations to happen, minds - and thus political culture - can change. For example: Since its colonial period, America has seen periods during which the dominating political culture favored a policy of isolationism from foreign affairs, particularly foreign wars. In each of these cases, threats that foreign wars might directly threaten American lives and freedoms resulted in rapid reversals of the isolationist political culture.As part of President Lyndon Johnson’s sweeping Great Society social reform initiative, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Passed after generations of post-Civil war racial discrimination, the law authorized the use of federal troops to supervise elections in several Southern states in order to protect the voting rights of black Americans. Forty years later, fearing that the racially-charged political culture in the South might still be a threat to the political freedom of blacks, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted the Voting Rights Extension Act of 2006. Today, multi-racial voting coalitions exist throughout the nation and Black-Americans are commonly elected to federal, state, and local offices. While some political cultures can be changed by the passage of laws, others cannot. In general, elements of a political culture based on deeply-seated beliefs or customs, such as patriotism, religion, or ethnicity are far more resistant to change than those based simply on the government’s policies or practices. Political Culture and US Nation Building While it is always difficult and sometimes dangerous, governments often try to influence the political culture of other nations. For example, the United States is known for its often-controversial foreign policy practice called â€Å"nation-building† - efforts to convert foreign governments to American-style democracies, often through the use of armed forces. In October 2000, President George W. Bush came out against nation-building, stating, â€Å"I dont think our troops ought to be used for whats called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.† But just 11 months later, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks changed the president’s perspective. As an outgrowth of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has attempted to establish democracies in those nations. However, political cultures have hindered those U.S. nation-building efforts. In both countries, years of long-standing attitudes toward other ethnic groups, religions, women, and human rights shaped by years of tyrannical rule continue to stand in the way.

An analysis of Mark Rothko's Essay Example For Students

An analysis of Mark Rothkos Essay There seems to be no shadowing and modeling is poor which makes it difficult to locate one individual light source. It also gives the figures a two dimensional appearance and makes them seem vacant and somber. The tonal range is wide but the use of cool colors (in particular grey and blues) has the effect of distancing the spectator from the scene. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on color rather than detail because the brushwork is crude. These factors lend the scene a cold and somewhat eerie feeling. Rotators repeated use of vertical lines (specifically the railings and pillars) segregates the figures from one another and more significantly, from the spectator. The overlapping of these objects gives the scene perspective, but long with the idea of segregation and a high picture plane, this only serves to further distance the spectator. The two left most pillars are arranged in such a way that they run parallel with the two right most pillars and with the wall at the back left of the scene. Furthermore the figures on the descending staircase and the figures around the ticket booth are along the same parallel plane, and are framed within the pillars. The effect is that the eye is drawn towards the booth along this line, Perhaps then it is no coincidence that the ticket booth also mess to be the location for the vanishing point. These factors would suggest that the implied spectator position is further back along the same line as the ticket booth and the figures on the descending stairs. Roth uses the methods have discussed to distance and segregate the spectator from the scene. Along With his brushwork, lighting and choice Of colors, this lends the painting an eerie atmosphere. As such, Subway Scene is a bleak and cold image that stresses a feeling Of alienation to the spectator.

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 11

Philosophy - Essay Example Stoicism was founded by three early thinkers – Zeno of Citium in Cyprus (344-262 BC), Cleanthes (d. 232 BC) and Chrysippus (d. ca. 206 BC). â€Å"Chrysippus was particularly prolific, composing over 165 works, but we have only fragments of his works. The only complete works by Stoic philosophers that we possess are those by writers of Imperial times, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), Epictetus (c. 55-135) and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180) and these works are principally focused on ethics† (Baltzly, 2004). On the surface, Stoicism emphasized the idea that the true sage, in his zealous pursuit of wisdom, would find all the happiness he could want in his knowledge and subsequent inner tranquility. The ultimate source of this tranquility is achieved through the fire of the soul as it becomes connected with the fire of God, who permeates everything. Because they felt that the laws of nature were absolute and that the essential nature of humans was reason, they felt people could d o no other than ‘live according to nature.’ The Epicureans, on the other hand, felt that the greatest goal in life was to experience pleasure. Founded on the ideas of Epicurus (340-270 BC), Epicureanism centers on the idea that pleasure in moderate amounts as well as an absence of bodily pain was necessary for one to gain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear. This was obtained through the obtaining of knowledge, friendship and by living a virtuous and temperate life. The key to how this philosophy differed from other forms of pleasure-seeking philosophies was in the term ‘moderation.’ Although it was all right to have sex, to become involved in an all-consuming passionate affair or to have sex too often could easily throw one out of balance, making it preferable to simply abstain. In addition, this philosophy was firmly grounded upon scientific, rather than divine, principles presuming that an understanding of the world around us, and a physical understanding of

David Henry Hwang - M. Butterfly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

David Henry Hwang - M. Butterfly - Essay Example The Act 1 Scene 1 of the play describes his cell and his fame for some monumental event in his past and later the apparent hallucination of Song Liling, a Chinese woman performing in the opera Madame Butterfly. The opera has symbolic significance and there is a reference to it off and on in the play. The character of Gallimard has been presented as in contrast to Pinkerton in Giacomo Puccini’s Madam Butterfly (produced, 1904; published, 1935). Gallimard evaluates himself as gauche and inept in love making, but is quite surprising that he could woo Song Liling, the charming Oriental woman. Gallimard was totally unaware of the fact that Liling is a communist agent, assigned to extract the information about the Vietnam War. Though Gallimard could attain high positions because of his Oriental affairs, he was demoted and sent back to France when his analysis on East-West relations proved wrong. To pursue their plans, the communists sent Liling to France to resume his affair with Gallimard. When Liling is arrested and produced before the court for espionage, he agrees that Gallimard had handed over him confidential documents and supported him and his son for fifteen years. At the court, Liling reveals his real gender and appears in men’s clothes. Towards the last part of the play Gallimard realises his own faults that he had kept the false concepts about an Oriental woman who can sacrifice everything for him. The last scene of the play witnesses the death of Gallimard.

Intellectual Freedom - It Isnt Free :: Politics Political

Intellectual Freedom - It Isn't Free We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown. T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Very few of us are unfamiliar with the Genesis account of creation, where it is written that "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." [1] The obvious point is that God creates the world; but later writings have chosen to focus on the idea that the divine being both creates and destroys by the power of His word alone. God spoke, and "it came to be." [2] By the time of the Gospel of John was put to paper, we are informed that the word is not merely an expression of God: it is, in fact, no less than God himself. [3] The word is divine. Especially after Augustine, who articulated Christian doctrine as the road to God passing directly within self, the inner word has been seen not only as the source of innermost self, but of conscience as well. [4] In terms of Augustinian inwardness, "God is to be found in the intimacy of self-presence." [5] The inner triangulation of self involves what the Athanasian Creed referred to as the "reasonable soul and the flesh" as two elements, with God the third in between. [6] In fact, it is clear that the original construction of the First Amendment was devoted to protecting precisely this Augustinian notion of inner light, this inner word and presence of God. [7] This is what Tom Paine, chaplain to the American Revolutionary soldiers (and author of Common Sense) referred to when he wrote his well-known dictum that "my own mind is my church." [8] As early as the 1740s, for example, it was the New Light Congregationalists (ironically similar in theological outlook to the ill-fated Anne Hutchinson [9] ), who posed what became the central axiom of the American revolution: the idea that "liberty of conscience" is the "inalienable right of every rational creature." [10] Note how similar Paine's notion of his own mind being his inner sanctum is to the Quaker notion of the "inner light," which Staughton Lynd described as "the preamble to the political faith of the Dissenter, as of the subsequent Declaration of Independence.

History of Garde Manager

The History of Garde Mange Aaron avers The garde manger profession began with peoples need to preserve food. The practice of food preservation is very much older than the term garde manger. In medieval times, castles and large homes were equipped with underground larders, or cold food storage rooms. The food storage areas in these castles and manor houses were usually located in the lower levels, since the cool basement-like environment was ideal for storing food. These cold storage areas developed over time into the modern cold kitchen. In France, the larder was called the garde manger.So one meaning of the culinary term garde manger can be a person in charge of cold foods preparation and preservation. Today, in the industry, I have been taught that the garde manger is now referred to as the â€Å"pantry chef. † Garde manger is also known as the place in which cold foods are prepared and stored, and the person or chef of cold foods preparation. Garerde Manger was being used l ong before it was a commonly used term. Perishable foods like meat and fish were dried in the sun or packed with salt to preserve them. The first dependable method of preserving foods was actually drying. Also you can read about  History of the Culinary Arts.Smoking foods was derived from placing the meat on poles over a smoky fire to prevent insects and other animals from feeding while it was curing. Farming families began using spices along with the salt, and discovered that tough meats can be tenderized. In the Middle Ages and in the early renaissance, foods that were prepared for the upper classes were overly complicated and heavily spiced. La Varenne, a French chef with Italian influences, went against medieval tradition,    and stressed the importance of natural flavors and lighter sauce.Salads and vinaigrettes took the place of heavier cooked foods and became the standard side to roasted meats. It was at this point that the role of garde manger expanded from food preserva tion to the actual preparation of all cold foods consumption, moving them out of the basement and into the kitchen. By the end of the twentieth century the prepackaging of our industry has allowed some great advances in garde manger. Garde manger, â€Å"keeper of the food†, or pantry supervisor, refers to the task of preparing and presenting cold foods.These typically include such food items as salads, hors d'? uvres, cold soups, aspics, and charcuterie. Larger restaurants and hotels may have the need for the garde manger to perform additional duties, such as creating elements for buffet presentation like edible centerpieces made from materials such as ice, cheese, butter, salt dough or tallow. In most modern kitchens the garde manger is synonymous with pantry chef, having duties focusing on salads, soups, cold food items, and dessert plating’s. It is usually the entry level line cook position within a restaurant.The term â€Å"garde manger† originated in pre-Re volutionary France. At that time, maintaining a full supply of food was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Noble families had a household steward who would manage their cold store room. The steward was referred to as the â€Å"officer de bouche†, a title that was eventually replaced with â€Å"garde manger†. This position was extremely important, because most of the food was butchered, pickled, salted, cured, or smoked during the fall season and stored for months, all the way into the spring months.It is because of this duty of supervising the preserving of food and managing its use that many interpret the term â€Å"garde manger† as â€Å"keeping to eat†. The position of â€Å"butcher† first developed as a specialty within the garde manger kitchen. As both the cost of and demand for animals for food increased, more space was required for the fabricating and portioning the raw proteins. This need for space was due not only to an upswing in the number of protein sales, but also to the need for separating raw proteins from processed foods to avoid cross-contamination and the resulting possibility of food borne illness.Special â€Å"butcher shops† were created where portion sizes, product deployment, and temperature could be highly controlled. Today butcher shops exist both as standalone establishments and alongside kitchens in large hotels, country clubs and high volume restaurants. Modern garde manger can refer to different things in the professional kitchen. In many restaurants it is a station which is generally an entry level cooking position within the restaurant, as it involves preparing salads or other smaller plates which can be cooked and plated without significant experience.In other high-profile classically influenced restaurants and hotels, the position pertains to the classical preparations. Today Garde Manger is referred to as â€Å"The Art of the Cold Kitchen†. Some may even say it is the arts a nd crafts of the culinary industry. Today's Garde Mangers must behold more than simple food preservation skills. They must have the knowledge and skills to create everything as small as a batch of mayonnaise to something as large and elaborate as ice carving. Some food establishments use the word pantry instead of Garde Manager.Some may even refer to it as the salad station†¦ the list goes on and on. In the restaurant scene the Garde Manger's job is typically plating salads and preparing cold appetizers. In some situations it may even be their job to plate desserts. Some find the experience of working in the Garde Manger extremely challenging and stimulating that they often decide to make it their life long career. The skills needed for the Garde Manger are so extreme that it is often the walkway that leads some to the path of being a great chef, possibly even a famous chef.

Socio-political Essay Online For Free - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2513 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Literature Essay Type Essay any type Tags: Political Essay Did you like this example? Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German poet, playwright and theatre director. This project will look at the development of Brechts playwriting over time in response to the socio-political changes in Berlin, by evaluating Brechts work in the three periods of different political environments that Brecht was exposed to in Berlin. These should reveal how historical context and political stance shaped his work. Some reference will be made to the plays mentioned, due to their content and the different times in which they were written. Academic and contemporary responses mentioned in this project were mostly acquired at the Brecht Haus archive in Berlin on 14th February 2008. During the First World War, Brecht doubted in a school essay whether it was honourable to die for your nation and this feeling was heightened when he had to serve in the war as a medical orderly in 1918 (Rosenhaft, 1994). His first plays were written as the war ended; the working tit le of one of his first was Spartakus (later published as Drums of the Night), after the organisation of the German revolutionaries Luxemburg and Liebknecht. Brechts radical side is clear in his early plays; he talks about the decay and corruption of the bourgeois society that he felt a part of (Meech, 1994). Yet arguably at this point in time, Brecht was â€Å"a bohemian rather than a Marxist† (Schoeps, 1992). The polarisation of the Weimar Republic and the rise of fascism that resulted in stronger political beliefs and works in the late 1920s (Fetscher, 1980). Saint Joan of the Stockyards, an allegory on the workings of the stock exchange, is an example of this (McCullough, 1994). The Weimar Republic saw the increasing commercialisation of leisure activity with the rise of popular entertainment (cinema, sports, dance, jazz, etc) (Rosenhaft, 1994). The educated, bourgeois audience was being replaced by a broader audience. This cultural democratisation affected the role of the writer (Silberman, 1993). Some traditionalists sought new ways of asserting their elitism whilst others like Brecht began to develop a habit of production that submerged the authors subjectivity within a collective (Meech, 1994) as seen with the adaptations of Marlowes Life of Edward the Second (1924) and Man Equals Man (1926). The notion of aesthetic activity as production rather than creation, theorised by Brecht in his essay The Threepenny Lawsuit (1932) indicates this shift. Social changes have therefore directly impacted Brechts style of writing and theoretical concepts of theatre. Brecht was taught Marxism in the late 1920s twenties by Korsch and Benjamin, both anti-Stalinists (Esslin, 1959). Brecht supported the KPD, a mass party that to him seemed the only force capable of confronting Hitler, unlike the main Trotskyist organisation in Berlin with only 50 members (Windisch Brandon, 2006). He would not have had much opportunity to influence events othe rwise. Brechts turn to Marxism changed his approach to theatre. He rejected the naturalistic style that presented the audience with a perfect illusion of reality. For productions of Drums of the Night, he suggested hanging a banner above the stage saying â€Å"Dont Stare So Romantically!† Ironically, the need for a new form of theatre became obvious to him after his biggest financial success. The Threepenny Opera (1928) illustrated begging as an organised trade, with criminals working hand in glove with the police. But rather than shocking bourgeois audiences, the play was a huge success (Schmidt, 1992). Audiences loved music, while Brechts critique of capitalism did not attract much attention. Brecht was involved in the conflicts at the end of the Weimar Republic. One month after the premiere of The Mother (1932), police ordered that the play could be recited but not played. The production of another play was stopped because Nazis were assaulting the actors (Windisc h Brandon, 2006). Brechts vision of a more humane society changed with the rise of fascism (Silberman, 1993). He usually failed to represent convincingly the alternative order that could confront fascism, as seen in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (1938), The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar (1938-39), and the Book of Changes (1935-42). As a Marxist, when the Nazis gained power, Brecht went into exile, staying close to the German border in Denmark and Finland to support the anti-fascist struggle until the war forced him to leave for the USA (1941). Until the end of WWII, Brechts plays rarely reached the stage. Yet the plays written in exile are his most famous today. Brecht expressed opposition to National Socialist and Fascist movements in Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Mother Courage, for example, is torn between protecting her children from the war and ma king a profit out of the Thirty Years War (Leach, 1994). Key themes in the play include war as business, virtue in wartime and morality. None of those plays put simple answers to the moral questions they raise, and none of them are simple propaganda pieces. Rather, they show how the possibilities of the individual characters are limited by social conditions, and they force the viewer to think about the limits of â€Å"common sense† moral judgements (Windisch Brandon, 2006). Brecht focused on new representation. On the one hand, the formal reductionism of the parable plays from this period seems to function as a kind of protective shield against the impossible contradictions of reality, but on the other, the shift in subject and technique to more deliberate forms of distancing de-centres the text-audience relation by transferring the utopian imagination into the spectators themselves (Silberman, 1993). The prologue to The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944) suggests the political and poetic utopia Brecht envisioned in his mature plays. Brechts invitation to return to the GDR, enticed by offer of own theatre and company, shows that although Brecht was not a member of the Communist Party, his allegiances were sincere (Esslin, 1959). The impressive Berliner Ensemble, visited on 15th February 2008, solely for the use of Brechts work and directing, and his work still dominates the theatre today (fieldtrip, 2008). He spent his last years defining and reworking his ideas. Although towards the end of his life Brecht wrote few plays, some famous poems have emerged from after the Second World War (Rundell, 1980). The Solution was Brechts commentary on uprising (1953) the GDR; he supported government measures taken to crush the uprising, including the use of Soviet military force, despite his concern for the protesting people as well. His allegiance to the communist regime is portrayed in The Days of the Commune, which is based on the proletariat revolution of the Paris Commune in 1871, which attempted to bring about a revolution through the working class. Brecht is often criticised for returning to the GDR (Fetscher, 1980). In fact, exile gave Brecht first-hand experience of the ‘freedom of the West. He was blacklisted out of 40 scripts he wrote, one was accepted for filming, and this was cut severely by Hollywood that Brecht withdrew it. Brechts commitments were leftist enough to provoke HUACs investigation in 1947 and the refusal of visas for travel to West Germany under US control (Kruger, 2004). Brecht also came into conflict with the Stalinist cultural bureaucracy. They forced him to make changes in several productions and even stopped two of them (Esslin, 1959). Brecht received support for his theatre in East Germany but he expressed private reservations about SED policy, especially after the workers uprising on 17 June 1953 challenged the partys claim to lead a â€Å"workers and peasants state† (Kruger, 2004). Brechts relation to the GDR regime remained contradictory. On the one hand, he said it would be better to have a bad socialism than to have none, he also disliked the dictatorship. When the Berlin workers uprising (1953) was repressed, he wrote a letter to the general secretary of the Communist Party in which he called for dialogue (Esslin, 1959). Only his last sentence backing the government was published. Hi call for dialogue, I believe, had two aims. Firstly, to reinstate peace amongst the campaigning people, as it seems unlikely Brecht would have spoken publicly against the GDR regime, despite his dissatisfaction with the scenario. Secondly, because of his pro-GDR regime status and his status as a GDR icon, his words would be more trusted by both parties. There is much argument over Brechts true thoughts regarding the 1953 uprising. In private, Brecht was more outspoken. In his unpublished poem The Solution, he ironically asks, â€Å"If the people had forfeited the confidence of the government, would it not be easier to dissolve the people and elect another?† Brecht intended his theatre to be a critique of society, believing that theatres function was to educate, and to achieve this he created his epic theatre theory. â€Å"A play should not cause the spectator to emotionally identify with the action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the actions on the stage†. Brecht wanted audiences to use critical perspective to identify social ills and therefore effect change, having described his plays as a collective political meeting in which the audience is to participate actively (Brooker, 1994). For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind spectators the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself called the alienation effect (Esslin, 1959). To achieve this, he ripped up the traditional five act structure of stat ic drama. Inspired by Russian revolutionary theatre, he looked for ways to interrupt the main plot (Windisch Brandon, 2006). For example, he used comments on the action directed to the audience, songs in between and projections of text with extra information. To undermine the natural curiosity of the audience, he used an announcer to summarise the scene before it was shown. This allowed him to show that the course of events is not simply given, and therefore demands choices and active intervention. The political side of his plays became harder to ignore. A good example is The Mother, which is set during the Russian 1905 revolution, showing a mother who wants to free her Bolshevik son from jail and how by doing so she gradually becomes convinced of Communism herself (Windisch Brandon, 2006). Brecht chose historical settings as another means of creating a distance between the viewer and the play. In Galileo Galilei, the struggle between the scientist and the Catholic Ch urch served as the scene for a debate on the tensions between individual beliefs and the way our rulers try to control our thoughts (Weber, 1980). Brechts has attracted immense controversy since his early theatrical successes in the 1920s, having been compared to Shakespeare (Laughton); Brecht is considered one of the great playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Over 50 years after his death, his plays along with those of Chekhov are the most frequently performed works (Fuegi, 1995). As Brook has emphasised: â€Å"Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point starts or returns to his statements and achievement†. But much praise for his ability and work is usually held up because of his Marxist views. This political allegiance has annoyed some critics like Willet, who has chosen to look upon it as something unfortunate but incidental to his achievements. Bentley also expresses his disappointment: Brecht â€Å"would be a be tter writer if he gave up Marxism†. Others oppose his work on the grounds that it is propagandistic and lacks the subjective sentiments accessible only through a more personal theatre of individual experience. Inevitably, commentators are forced to approach Brecht by addressing not only his plays but also his writings on theatre as well as the way he directed productions. Mostly they decide to deal with his technical expertise in isolation from his politics (Fuegi, 1995). Brecht is seen as a modern dramatist and poet worthy of careful study, and of no more particular interest except that he also happened to be political (Breuer 1992, Weber 1992). This purposeful attempt to neglect the political Brecht is frustrating because of its success in obscuring the relevance of his achievements, despite his surviving attempts by fascism to destroy its revolutionary content and undermine its significance. Most commentators have failed to understand the rationale of the method involved. But Brecht was quite clear about what he wanted and how he proposed to get it. When he referred to Marx as â€Å"the only audience for my plays that I had come across†, Brecht was describing a primary focus that is lost on his many critics. He did not mean that only Marxists could understand his plays. Rather it was Marxists alone who could understand what he was trying to do. Brecht comprehended how controlling cultural production had become under capitalism. His response was to do something about it by creating a theatre that sought to redefine the relationship between audience and performance (Trommler, 1980). Yet the historical illusions of modernism have become a problem of positioning oneself subjectively in a post-modern age when evaluating the subject of this study. Brecht was a communist without a party card. He could write only on commission from the party, their precarious status did not hinder him from criticising the policies of the party as we ll as praising its goals (Volker, 1987). His critiques were never simply blunt attacks, but were handled lightly with wit and satire. However, the party officials did not appreciate his critical irony, but preferred instead the sympathetic tracts of bourgeois authors. Brechts communist allegiances have also led to numerous attempts by the mainstream art world to degrade his legacy either by claiming that his plays are worthless Stalinist propaganda, or by claiming that they are worthwhile despite the politics (Windisch Brandon, 2006). Yet Brechts popularity has depended on misreading since 1928, when The Ballad of Mack the Knife song performed as part of The Threepenny Opera in Berlin became one of the most-recorded standards in the history of pop music. Brecht (and his composer Weill) might have wanted an art that hastens the overthrow of capitalism; instead they got covers from Darin and Sinatra (Tonkin, 2006). Depoliticising Brecht, however, is a difficult job he wrote plays with titles such as The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoisie and Days of the Commune, and poems like The Song of the Class Enemy (Windisch Brandon, 2006). Brechts period in exile was a fight against material want, persecution, betrayal, and political disappointment (Volker, 1987). The last years of his life were spent in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), because he wanted another Germany based on the principles of peace and socialism. There, he was able to preserve his independence and artistic integrity. He welcomed the politicisation of art while vigorously defending his work against any state ideology (Volker, 1987). His theatre, the Berliner Ensemble, was opposed to the official GDR doctrine on art (Socialist Realism) and to the German Stanislavski tradition (naturalism) (Etkind, 1980). On principle, he rejected the use of art and theatre to conform to state requirements of taste. Brechts main contribution, then, is to be found in the innovativ e ways he devised for examining history and making the processes of history visible as changeable ones (Trommler, 1980). Brechts impact is not to be found in any recipes he may have provided but rather in the possibility of his writings to enable our own creativity in thinking about historical truths and processes (Silberman, 1993). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Socio-political Essay Online For Free" essay for you Create order