Marxism and The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Before We Begin:
Consider the working world that Marx was addressing.
Marxism: Defined in Two Very Separate Ways:
1) Critical Theory: A philosophical tool for analyzing/explaining social-historical-political events, relationships, and ideologies
2) Prescriptive Method: An economic system (socialism and communism) meant to create human equality and justice through economic equality and the elimination of personal property. Like the Enlightenment and Romanticism, (and all religions) this element of Marxism is utopian; it believes it can permanently eliminate certain types of human suffering by creating social equaity.
In this class, we're primarily interested in the first way because while few still believe communism works, Marx's view of history and knowledge (Ideology) remains highly influential and is as much a part of the way conservatives see the world as it is a "liberal" theory.
(Note: While Communism as an actual political-economic theory has been widely dismissed by most Westerners, both Social Democracy and Marxist Critical Theory remain widely accepted and practiced; it's worth noting that with few exceptions, the countries with the highest standards of living have adopted explicitly Social Democratic systems of government. (ie: Canada, Australia, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark etc.) Note also, for example, that over 80% of the Alaskan state budget is funded by the socialization of its oil fields, which belong to the state, not to private companies; technically, Alaska is therefore a largely socialist state.
Marxism: The Five Underlying Principles and Key Terms:
1) The Means or Mode of Production: This is Marx's term for all the material things necessary to produce wealth or products -- it includes everything (but labor) necessary to make and distribute stuff. When we talk about the "means of production" we generally mean natural resources like land, minerals, oil, trees etc.; tools and factories; means of distribution like roads and highways, vehicles.
2)
Historical Materialism:
a) History itself is nothing but an endless power struggle over
controlling the means of production: the natural resources and labor necessary
to live. All struggles, though they may appear to be over nationalism or
religion etc., are really rooted in a struggle over the means of production and
labor.
b) All cultural beliefs (ideologies) follow material/economic relationships; we cannot escape our economic lives (our dependence on others for goods and services) and all of our basic beliefs -- and he does mean all -- are a reflection of those economic relationships.
"In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production [or “means of production] of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness." (note: this is Existential)
-- A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Note that this is really just a continuation of Rousseau's theory of The Origin Of Human Inequality: everything that we think (Ideology) and all of our human relationships stem from struggles over property.
Heart Of Darkness revolves around this theory: the colonialists say they are in Africa to "bring civilization" to the natives (see Ideology, below), but they are in fact there for ivory and gold.
Working Class or Proletariat: "those individuals who sell their labor and do not own the means of production"
Bourgeoisie: those who "own the means of production" and exploit the proletariat.
The Proletariat are always struggling to become the Bourgeoisie and the Bourgeoisie are always struggling to keep them from doing so. All conflicts, including all wars, including all racism, including all sexism, are essentially this conflict: a battle between these two social classes over the means of production.
3) Hegemony: the dominance of one group over another (the Bourgeoisie over the Proletariat) through force or Ideology (see below); the means through which one group calls “all the shots” in terms of both Material/Economic relations and beliefs.
In Heart Of Darkness, we would say colonial Belgium is exercising hegemony over the native Congolese. In Things Fall Apart we would say men exercise hegemony over women.
4) Capitalism, Profit And Labor:
Capitalist Ideology argues that profit belongs to whomever controls capital (material goods and means to produce and distribute those goods: the land, natural resources, tools, the means of distribution etc).
Marxist Theory (or "Marxist Ideology") argued that profit margins are actually largely located in labor, thus labor has economic value. Capital may belong to the capitalist, but labor belongs to each man or woman him or herself. The working class is exploited in the form of profit: what the laborer rightly earned is given to the capitalist. This is key: no man can own or control the value of another man's labor or the relationship is inherently exploitive and, thus, immoral.
5) Ideology: The control of knowledge to maintain existing or establish social class structures. A belief system adopted as “inherently true” that operates unconsciously and permeates a culture as truth itself. In The German Ideology Marx most clearly defines ideology as pertaining to "politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics etc." This is the part of Marxist theory we are most interested in because Marx radically changes the way philosophers see knowledge itself.
Dominant ideologies:
a) Are produced, controlled and distributed by the hegemon; those who control the means of production also control a culture's belief system.
b) Appear neutral while those threatening existing class structure are painted as “radical." Dominant ideologies are the one we all accept as "true" without really challenging.
c) Are “existential”: people create ideas, rather than those ideas actually having a verifiable factual basis.
d) Because the dominant ideology supports those in power, analyzing and understanding a given ideology explains material conditions of class power structures ("who is who’s ho").
e) Are fluid, mutable: when the power structure changes the dominant ideology will change as well to reflect the new power relationship.
A society cannot change the existing means of production and class structures without changing the existing ideology. Vice versa: changing existing ideologies is actually an attempt to change class structure. Inherently and always. Thus any and all discussion of values and beliefs is in fact an attempt to define class relationships: who controls the means of production.
Examples Of How Ideology Intersects With Means of Production and Class:
There are many different types of Ideology. In this framework, all religious values are Ideology. The basic American Ideologies are Freedom, Equality, and Capitalism: these are the basic principles we pretty much all hold as "inherently true". Of course, where Marxism seems to have gone "wrong" is in not recognizing that Marxism or Communism would simply become another Ideology, in the same cynical sense it was designed to escape.
Colonialism: This is the easiest example and most direct form: one group uses racism, ethnic nationalism or its own inherent values to justify exploiting another race or nation's labor and natural resources. What's important here is that Marx doesn't believe people exploit others because they are racist but rather that racism exists so that we can exploit each other; remember, ideologies come from economic relations, not vice versa.
Civil Liberties: The most straightforward examples of this include value-issues such as Immigration, Illegal Immigration, Marriage Rights For Gays And Lesbians, the Legalization Of Marijuana etc. In each of these cases we find that the most powerful political lobbies are often those with the deepest economic stake in the issue. (Roughly 10 million illegal immigrants live and work in the USA. 50 percent of all farm workers in the US are illegal aliens, and Americans spend less on food than the citizens of any other industrialized country. Only 1,063 employers were fined for hiring illegals in 1992, and that number dropped to 13 in 2002; all told, less than $10,000 dollars in fines were collected in 2003. In other words, while we talk about ending illegal immigration we systematically profit from its existence, and this is not coincidental: we profit from it because we think it is wrong; hating illegal immigrants is what justifies exploiting them).
Romanticism And Nature: From a Marxist perspective, for example, Romantic views of Nature and the Sublime were seen as no more than wealthy, industrialized urbanites using Romantic Ideology to justify control of rural lands -- movies like Bambi, conceived of and produced in urban Los Angeles, would be viewed as an attempt to demonize rural means of production (hunting, logging etc.) and thereby gain economic control of those means (ski areas, national parks etc.).
Diversity: People living in regions valuing "diversity" (California, New York etc.) have an economic interest in diverse peoples seeing each other as "equal" -- these regions are dependent on international trade, the importation of well educated foreign workers etc -- while states valuing segregation or "white supremacy" (Mississippi etc.) have economies built around cheap, race-based labor. In short, if seeing different cultures as "equal" lines my pockets, I will embrace equality; if seeing different cultures as "equal" costs me profit and seeing others as "inferior" lines my pockets, I'll lean toward racism and bigotry.
How do these theories relate to and possibly explain Heart Of Darkness and Things Fall Apart? How might it relate to Marlow's opinion of Brussels and the "Intended"? How does it relate to Okonkwo's experience with his son and the closing words of the book?
6) Alienation:
It now became the interest of men to appear what they really were not. To be and to seem became two totally different things; and from this distinction sprang insolent pomp and cheating trickery, with all the numerous vices that go in their train. -- Rousseau "Discourse On The Origin Of Human Inequality"
Marx picks up where Rousseau left off, arguing that modern, capitalist and industrial economies create a condition of alienation.
a) Alienation From Self and Labor: In industrial societies, workers are paid to produce material goods, and these goods are then sold to others; thus, labor (the work necessary to produce something) is objectified (labor is turned into a material object), and the worker is alienated from this object: his days are spent producing things for others, so he becomes separated from his life/work.
Example: A good, contemporary image to represent this would be the barefoot, teenage, Muslim, Indonesian woman running a machine to produce $100, size 10 Nikes for a six-foot, American, teenage boy (who will not hold a full time job until he is 22) to play basketball in, a sport the Indonesian teenager has never seen.... Compare this example to a peasant farmer or a hunter gatherer: these people produce the tools used to produce labor necessary to produce their own food, either on their own land or on ancestral hunting land; there is no or at least less separation between one's own labor (means of production) and one's own life, self, family, clan, tribe....
b) Alienation From Others: In industrial, capitalist society, labor is a commodity; it is something bought and sold on the economic market. Thus, capitalist society produces and ideology where-in all its members perceive one another as commodities. Further, capitalism encourages exploitation since the pursuit of capital -- vs. the pursuit of morality, or love, or community -- is the dominant ideology: the economic system pressures to get as much labor from one another for the least amount of capital. Simply put, capitalism forces everyone to perceive one another as commodities, objects for generating more capital.
Alienation is deeply tied to Ideology: Rather than Nike existing to serve other American by giving them jobs etcs, or to help build a moral society, or for some other "higher purpose", Nike exists to generate capital (profit). In this model -- capitalism, profit is the moral good itself; that is to say: capitalist Ideology states that profit itself is a moral good. Thus, all Nike's executives, stock holders, managers, middle-managers -- in short, every single person with a stake in Nike -- are all alienated from the teenage, Muslim, Indonesian woman running a machine to produce $100, size 10 Nikes. In fact, the more one is alienated from her, the less concerned we are about her well being...thus, Nike is encouraged by capitalist ideology to view the worker as a commodity -- an object, a number in a book -- rather than a human being.
Similarly, all of Nike's employees view each other this way. The stock holders view each other and the company this way. Everyone involved in this means of production is alienated from everyone else.
Here's a good example: Phil Knight of Nike has never set foot in one of his overseas factories (or "sweatshops") (see The Corporation (ff> to 2:50)); Marxist theory would argue that Knight's alienation from his employees (or from his contractors' employees -- one further step of remove) allows him an Ideology of exploitation, and, conversely, his Ideology (Free Trade) justifies his alienation.
Most importantly, because Ideology permeates all levels of society, everyone in a capitalist society is trained to view everyone else as a commodity, an object: we are all taught to see each other as something we can exploit...and in a free-market society, this exploitation is the highest moral good.
The Norwegian documentary
Ancient, Medieval, Enlightenment and Rousseau-ean Foundations of Marxism:
Medieval and Puritan Roots: While it is certainly accurate to say the Communism saw religion as the enemy, and vice versa, it's important to realize that the foundational Communist assumption pre-date capitalism and were common ideas to Judaism, the Catholic Church and Protestant Puritans: one should not exploit other members of one's own community and all economic relations must be moral -- that is, good for all concerned parties and the community as a whole. As we've already discussed, ancient Romans and Catholics alike banned interest on money-lending (usury). Further, the early American Puritans had far more in common with modern Communists than with free market and democratic capitalists: they held property in common and saw the community as a whole, rather than individual gain, as the measurement of economic good.
Rousseau-ean -- Romantic Basis: Property is the root of all social evil. Selfishness is existential: it is not an inherent/instinctual human quality but rather the result of capitalist economic systems. Communism also deified the worker or peasant, idealizing them as the greatest repository of morality and social good.
Rousseau and the Socialist Solution to Alienation: If property is the problem, common (communal) ownership is the solution. Common ownership of all goods, services, commodities, property etc. creates an ideology in which rather than competing to exploit one another, we work toward our own good as the common good.
More: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5o.htm
Enlightenment Basis: There is a material basis to everything and science can explain it:
a) Human systems and relationships can be understood thru the application of scientific principles: rationally and numerically. (Political Economy)
b) Human systems and relationships can be improved thru the application of scientific principles.
Note, however, the ambivalent relationship between much Marxist theory criticizes the Enlightenment as a tool-of-oppression used to maintain hegemony: science itself can be used to keep the weak down; the industrial revolution alienated workers from their means of production, families, land, religions etc.; capitalist and democratic ideology is often used to invade and conquer competing countries, etc. "Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all other ones." CM (2175))
Modern Adaptations of Marxist Theory:
Consumer Culture and Marketing: IF Ideology determines relationships to goods and services, and IF Ideology is somewhat fluid (ideas have no essential “truth”) and are thus open to change, THEN marketers should be able to produce new ideologies (marketing campaigns) that create and exploit false material relations. That is: we can make you think you need to buy things you don’t need at all, but to do so we must reshape your very conception of truth and culture. Thus: Culture can be manufactured to the capitalist's advantage.
Examples: Cosmopolitan Magazine, Song airlines, Harley Davidson, Fender guitars “emotional and spiritual relationship to commodity items.”