Friday, October 9, 2009

The Age of Empire 2

In this weeks reading of, The Age of Empire, Hobsbawm discusses the growth of the working class and its effect on government. The working class was expanding. Industrialization was coming into full force in the early 19th century, and this caused the need for more jobs. The lower class was always being looked over or ignored because their views and opinions didnt matter to the government. Because they were growing as a group, they became the majority of people. The working class was forceful and wanted to become political.
Government leaders became frightful of communism due to these masses. Democracy, however, was inevitable. Country by Country, governments democratised and attempted to give the massive working class a voice. Unfortunately, since the old leaders were still in power the governmental system was corrupt. The officials began fixing elections and rigging the electoral college from these new democratic ways.
The working class eventually began having say. The corrupt officals did not have a chance to stop them anymore because they were becoming the majority. In a democratic system the voice lies within the majority. Now, the working class was able to vote and have a part in government.
I did not understand how the working class went from being unheard, to having a massive voice. Hobsbawm did not go into depth enough, i dont think, on that part. It was as if it just happened over night, and that is definitely not possible.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with Carly in the fact that Hobsbawn could have gone into more depth about the working class. I wish i new more about how the ideologies spread before there was mass media.

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  2. I also agree lol....I feel that there was no legitimate explanation to how the working class just came to be this big huge power/voice when before this they were silenced. Maybe it just shows the idea that every voice makes a difference and people are stronger united. But i feel even tho they were united it just seemed far-fetched for it to happen this quick.

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  3. I also agree with the fact that there really was no in-depth explanation as to how the masses started having such a large voice in their societies. To me it seemed Hobsbawn went straight from the ruling class having power to the masses having a say with no explanation in between. I would like to know how the whole movement started.

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