Reflection 8

March 22, 2011

                Today’s lesson was about Marxism. Karl Marx took advantage of his opportunity to criticize Capitalism yet introduce his philosophy of ideologies. His main concerns were about life and its material condition along with society and its economic structure. He believed that the consciousness of men did not determine their being, but their social being was the determinant of their consciousness. Communism in his mind was not about ownership, but it was about everyone sharing. Capitalism, on the other hand, was always a social relation which included labor, wealth, fixed capital, factories, etc. with no concern of people. Marx believed in the dialectic materialism derived from constant conflicts pertaining to oppositions that he believed were inherent in all ideas, events, and movements.

               Marxism uses a deterministic model with the belief that ideologies could sustain Capitalism. He used a base (or bottom level) for the means of production from factories, tools, technology, etc., and relations to the means of production or labor. The superstructure (or top level) included education, religion, politics, and culture. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat social groups were always at odds and Marx offered a labor theory of value with a dialectical term. This epoch was that it was a social product and if the value was used than you would reap what you sowed. The productive labor would yield surplus value. The proletariats would sell their labor power on a pre-arranged, pre-paid basis to the Capitalists. The Capitalists would than sell the products at market value earning a surplus value or profit. Everybody won so to speak; however, the proletariat group was still the lowest social group and would not have a lot of money, but at least they would have money to survive. The inherent contradictions would be that competition would be eliminated; there would be an increase of a larger labor base, and the allowance of a concentration of wealth. Marx separates labor from the product—masked in the commodity, but Capitalism depended on masked labor. What a secretive group!!

Word Count:338

Works Cited

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

          New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 2010. Print.