4 ms·
see also, Marx's theory of Alienation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
by walrus01 4y ago
see also, Marx's theory of Alienation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
The theoretical basis of alienation is that the worker invariably loses the ability to determine life and destiny when deprived of the right to think (conceive) of themselves as the director of their own actions; to determine the character of said actions; to define relationships with other people; and to own those items of value from goods and services, produced by their own labour. Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realized human being, as an economic entity this worker is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the bourgeoisie—who own the means of production—in order to extract from the worker the maximum amount of surplus value in the course of business competition among industrialists.
that sure sounds like a paycheck-to-paycheck, permanent renter class person that's become trapped in a debt-laden advertising-driven consumer lifestyle to me.
- woodruffw 4y agoPeople have accused Marx of all sorts of ridiculous things, but a lack of prescience isn't one of them :-)
- pvg 4y agoMarxist thinkers spent an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to explain away the myriads of ways in which actual Communist revolutions didn't happen in the way he predicted.
- walrus01 4y agoWhether or not various communist revolutions ultimately succeeded is a sideline topic from the general concept that workers in our modern era increasingly are treated as a commodity, and alienated from their product. There's various ways to attempt to ameliorate this sort of situation through regulatory means without having an October Revolution. I'm talking about more basic things like European countries' vacation time granted for every full time employee, companies moving to a 4-day work week or 32 hour schedule, maternity leave written into law, workplace safety regulations (Marx probably would have loved the general concept of OSHA), etc.
- pvg 4y agoIt's not whether they succeeded, they simply didn't happen where he thought they would, the way he thought they would nor developed the way he thought they would. This was a real, well-recorded problem - after all, his work aspired to be a scientific theory, if the theory predicts things but they don't happen, you have a problem. Dealing with this problem is a pretty big part of the development Marxism, it's simply inaccurate to say nobody thought he wasn't prescient. Marxists had to account for his non-prescience and went at it with great energy. Here's one historical example of many: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_one_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_in_one_country
- woodruffw 4y agoI am thankfully not a "Marxist thinker," and thus will not spend even a merely ordinate amount of time trying to defend this particular tangent. Marx's prescience in economics and sociology is not meaningfully altered by his academic descendants.
- pvg 4y agoWell, you can read my longer comment downthread but 'nobody accused Marx of non-prescience' just isn't true. Marxists did! Pretty much right off the bat.
- johndevor 4y agoWasn't prescient enough to see communism kill millions ;)
- woodruffw 4y agoMarx, not unlike another famous historical figure, has had many wars fought in (and against) his name. That doesn't change the material facts about him, which is that he was a somewhat-broke academic economist in Prussia.