100 must-read books for college students

Chapter 100 New Horizons in Cultural Analysis
Chapter 99 A New Vision of Cultural Analysis: "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism"

In today's United States, all its departments are built on the basis of efficient operation
of.exist
In such a social structure, individuals must be treated as "things" rather than people, and become the people who maximize profits.
tool.This has led to the denial and rejection of culture, the split of cultural values, and finally a cultural crisis and even a social crisis.

There will be a crisis.In the post-industrial society, nature and machines have been hidden into the background of human existence, the primary problem facing society

It is a question of people and people, people and themselves.In such a general environment, after socialism, liberalism and neo-conservatism

Under the impact of the three major modern trends of thought, Bell formed a "combined" thought structure on this basis, as he himself said
said he was "economically socialist, politically liberal, and culturally conservative"

.

"Combined" thought "Picture man" concept

Born in the United States in 1919, Daniel Bell is an important contemporary American scholar and thinker.Sociology of the Postwar West

, futurology and advanced capitalism research fields occupy a leading position. Bell has been in Columbia since the 20s

Asia University

(1952-1969) and Harvard University (1969-present) as professors of sociology, and participated in the establishment of the Voice of American Social Sciences
The prestigious publication The Public Interest. Published "Capitalism Today" in 1971. In 1972, when the American intellectual elites were surveyed,

He once ranked first among the 20 most influential famous scholars with the highest votes. 1976 book "Cultural Contradiction of Capitalism".in recent years

Later, as the chairman of the "2000 Committee" of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was a representative of critical sociology and cultural conservatism.
He is a representative figure with a high reputation in the European and American ideological circles and is quite influential. The book "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" published in 1976 mainly

Put forward the "picture human culture view", discuss the cultural contradictions of capitalism, explain the course of capitalist culture and cultural
Religious functions and other aspects of the content.

Scientific Tools for Cultural Analysis

"Picture man" in "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" means "a man like a painter", that is, man is an animal that makes symbols
. The concept of "picture man" clearly reflects the humanism tendency of this book, that is, it pays attention to the process of man transforming the world and creating history.

The role of the subject in the middle, or the tendency of anti-positivism or anti-scientism, this humanistic tendency is also reflected in his specific understanding of culture.
body definition.

According to the book, the main function of culture

It is to provide a rationalized morality to the human world, and to provide a sense of purpose and meaning that make human beings willing to survive;
Culture is a moral bond that unites or binds people together.

However, culture must go beyond the present in order to provide a cohesive "meaning to exist" with the help of a set of symbols

, Religion occupies a dominant position in the concept of culture.Religion is the awareness of the transcendence of human beings, and it is the search for a "survival"

"General order," which connects the self to others, the self to the world in a transcendent sense, and connects life, such as suffering and death,

The problem of existence is sublimated into sacred symbolic rituals and images, and the continuity of moral meaning is maintained through tradition.Therefore, cultural

The main source of symbols and meanings is religion.

This book argues that in the above conception of culture he leaves aside cognitive models, philosophical and scientific issues, which of course also belong to

in the field of culture.But obviously, even including philosophy, science, etc., the concept of culture in this book still belongs to

It belongs to the "small culture" category of humanities scholars represented by words, not to mention that its subjects are religion, morality, literature and art, so it only
belong
The "core of value" in the concept of culture of anthropologists such as Kroeber, while somewhat leaving aside content such as behavioral norms and lifestyles.

This book points out that culture as ideology, once created by people, becomes forever a part of moral tradition and is acquired

Got it
independent life of its own, unlike the economy and obsolete technology, which will never perish, and which intellectuals, theologians
He and moralists are constantly recombining and shaping, and constantly provide new and rich imaginations for human life.So throughout civilization progress

In the process, these traditions may be revived and never become obsolete.Cultural traditions have become a

own independent power.

This book criticizes the historical determinism of Hegelian holism before presenting his theory of social history.the book thinks

, The deterministic view of society and history does not see the original role of people and culture in the process of historical development.

Culture has become the source of change
This is one of the themes highlighted in the book "Cultural Contradictions".Clearly due to economic-technical and political
Changes are restricted and hindered by resources and vested interests, while the changes of ideographic symbols and their forms are obviously in the field of culture.

Although it is difficult to be accepted by the public, it will not encounter any resistance.

In view of this, Bell divided the whole society into three fields: social structure (techno-economic order), politics and culture.
There are different axis principles and structures in different domains.The central axis principles of modern culture are self-expression, self-satisfaction and self-actualization

now.It is an anti-institutional and anti-normative principle, where the individual is taken as the measure of satisfaction, the individual mood, emotion and judgment
Rather than objective standards of quality and value, determine the value of cultural objects.The ego seeks experiences of all kinds, no longer accepting
recognize any boundaries and limitations.Every individual wants to realize his full "potential", so the relationship between the individual self and the techno-economic order

increasingly contradictory role requirements.

In these three domains, there are different "rhythms" of social change, but there is no simple determining relationship.

The cultural contradictions of capitalism in "Cultural Contradiction" include social contradictions at two levels.on its surface is the social
There will be contradictions between various fields.

On a deeper level, a deep contradiction has also formed within modern culture.

The same cultural contradictions also arise within social structures.This is the economic system of capitalism that creates the internal character structure of people
Contradiction.

The core of the book "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" is to reveal the capitalist culture from Protestant ethics to hedonism,
The process of metamorphosis from Puritanism to narcissism.The roots of this transformation are, first, the function of the capitalist commercial economic system itself.

The second is the independent evolution of modernist culture according to its own "rhythm" of change.

"Cultural Contradiction" first accepted Weber's theory on the relationship between Protestant ethics and capitalist production order at the beginning of its argument.

Protestant ethics and Puritan spirit in the United States embody farmers, small
A world view of the lifestyle of the townspeople, small traders and craftsmen.

Changes in the sphere of social structure or techno-economic order are but one aspect of the breakdown of Protestant ethics and Puritanism.
Another direct factor is the impact of anti-traditional modernist cultural trends.

At the starting point, the economic impulse of capitalism and the cultural drive of modernism once shared a free and emancipatory mind.
Same source.In the economic sphere it is "radical individualism" and in the cultural sphere it is "the unrestricted self"
". Although the two share a common ideological background in denying the tradition and authority of the past, there is a rapid disparity between them.
An antithetical relationship arises, the bourgeois attitude of rational calculation and orderly restraint of spontaneous impulse and the romanticism

The impulse to seek sensual excitement conflicted, and the romantic trend of thought later evolved into the modernism emphasis on intuition and instinct.

irrationalism.When capitalist production organizations become more and more bureaucratic and individuals become mere mechanical roles, the bourgeoisie
The antagonism between the rational way of life and worldview and the irrationalism of modern culture deepens, so that work or production
The tension between the norms of the field and the cultural impulse for self-expression and self-gratification also deepens.

When modern culture develops to the post-modern trend of thought, its creativity has been exhausted, and after it has been integrated into mass culture, it becomes even more vulgar

The.

Capitalist society has lost its intellectually or culturally respected system of cultural meaning and artistic style.

Since the second half of the 19th century, the intelligentsia in capitalist society first developed a sense of nihilism. "God is dead

", the afterlife is empty, and the traditional Christian faith loses that magic power over people, or as Scheler and Max Weil

According to Bo, the world undergoes a process of disenchanting.Then, starting in the 20s, jobs and wealth were lost as well.
Neither is the religious meaning sanctioned by ethics, or the legitimacy of transcendence, mere hard work and the accumulation of wealth
job.Thus, first for the educated classes, and later for all middle classes alike, the social conduct
Legitimation has been transformed from religion into a function of modern culture.The modernists' aesthetic rationalization of life is an alternative to traditional

An attempt by religion to provide meaning to human existence.Modern culture has got rid of traditional religion both ideologically and symbolically

The clichés of beliefs provide alternative answers to the plight of human existence.In Bell's view, rationalism, aestheticism (ie

Aesthetic rationalization of life), existentialism, secular civil and political religion (modern Utopia), are all realized
An alternative answer to the illusion of traditional religion.

The process by which modern culture acquires religious functions is called "the great secularization", a change of moral fashion.This process is also
It is the process of the rise of modernist cultural thought.The elimination of the traditional tension between instinctual impulse and rational norms, freedom and restraint
This is one of the major achievements of modern culture replacing religion.In the past, traditional religions always imposed restrictive moral rules on human nature.

It establishes various taboos and restrictions, and makes the aesthetic impulse subordinate to the moral code.Once culture and art treat human will
The evil of aspirations has produced the requirement of "aesthetic autonomy", that is, self-experience itself is the highest value, and everything
Everything is allowed, including carnality and murder, which have also become aesthetic objects.This leads to the loss of originality of revelation, tradition, authority and reason.
Experience becomes the touchstone of judgment, and cultural norms emphasize the idea of ​​self-experience.

According to Bell, the path of culture always leads people to a transcendent world, but this transcendence

The world has been vulgarized, superficial and boring by modern culture.

Since the plight of human existence comes from a certain mystery, the question of the meaning of existence is unavoidable in any culture.

It is said that modern culture will move in the direction of regaining the sense of the sacred, and the sacredness will return.Cultural contradictions further argue that Western
At least three religions will be revived in the near future.One is moralizing religion, which is based on fundamentalist and evangelical beliefs

foundation, opposed to bringing modernist impulses into politics, especially in the areas of sexuality (such as the gay rights movement), morality, abortion, etc.
Complete personal freedom in matters.Followed by redemptive religion, it emphasizes the importance of tradition and responsibility, and opposes centralization.
bureaucratic organizations on a large scale, while “intermediaries” such as families, churches, neighborhoods, and voluntary
mystical way of thinking.The world has become too scientific and rational, human beings need a sense of strangeness and mystery, and mythology will

People bring back what Goethe called the ultimate phenomenon, that is, the ultimate meaning of the plight of existence.Chinese thoughts on "Tao" and "Xiang"

I think that Eastern mysticism such as Zen and yoga will have a bigger market in the West.

Throughout "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", the theoretical vision and analysis of the three central axes and their contradictory relations proposed in the book

method, providing an insight and operational tool for those accustomed to seeing economics, politics, and culture as isomorphic and synchronous,

And it opens up a new horizon for more abstract socio-cultural analysis.Among them, the concept of "picture man" puts the symbol

Bell's cultural theory is a collection of its culmination and leads to its application. Bell's theory and methodology have become a real way to promote today's world.
scientific tools.

(End of this chapter)