When thinking about Marx's arguments as to why a "common good" society would be better, it can be difficult for us to fully understand because we were all born and bred in a capitalist society. We are grown to thrive off of competition with our peers: to be the best, be the smartest, serve the most...isn't that what college (well Rhodes College) is all about? When thinking about competition, I always come back to Marx's point about labor exploitation, and how everyone earning a wage, who does not own the labor/wages, falls victim to it. Luckily, however, we have we have those wages to help distract us from noticing our own exploitation. We can not only survive, but can buy frivolous toys on groupon, go to theaters in our off time (the time off of work when we feel more like ourselves), or buy yolo every week to try to get to our 30pts. Marx would say that these are all distractions pulled off by capitalism, in order to blind us from our own exploitation. In a practical sense, do we NEED to recognize our exploitation? Is there really any major gain from knowing it?
Also on a different note, Do you think that in today's society labor is the only thing being exploited? Or do we have bigger issues? For instance, with education. I often think that in today's classrooms, children are being exploited by policies (not their teachers....usually) that force teachers to teach a test rather than to truly educate and empower students to strive for knowledge-those higher pleasures. Do you think Marx would see this or any other issue as an exploitation by capitalism?
I think that it good that you point out that Marx’s theory sounds very strange to us because we are all raised based on capitalism; I think our society certainly makes it harder for people to think about doing things differently than we do them (which is another issue). As far as Marx’s theory about labor exploitation, I think that in some ways, people do realize that they are being exploited but are distracted with things that keep them from acting on it. If someone were to go on strike, they wouldn’t get their wages and wouldn’t be able to do the things that make us feel more human. I think a large part of it is that if people can’t afford to do anything about the fact that they are exploited, whether it’s because they wouldn’t be able to afford food, or something they simply want. I think that many people know they are being exploited on some level, but I don’t think they gain anything from it, but who’s to say if ignorance is truly bliss.
ReplyDeleteI think that workers in our capitalist society know that they are inevitably being exploited. It would take an entire class of workers to overturn this exploitation by altering the labor supply structure. In most cases workers are going to be in competition with each other rather as a class against there employer. It is not that they do not understand the exploitation, it is that in our capitalistic society we rather compete with those on a similar playing field.
ReplyDeleteObviously you don't need to understand your exploitations because there are many people that function very efficient without recognizing how much that they are given and don't need like trust fund kids (there could be some at Rhodes). But in a different light I think that it doesn't hurt to be able to understand what we are spending on unfruitful stuff. Of coarse it is nice to be able to go out and enjoy the ability to just indulge in things you don't need, but at the same time it helps me realize where my priorities are if I see what I am spending on that I don't need.
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