FINAL MAYBE - TO BE CONTINUED?

Long Live This Salesman

With four children and my precious daughter to support my salesman son-in-law has not sold a single machine in six months. After such a long discouraging period and at a time when the nation and even the world is teetering on the brink of depression you would probably expect him to at least consider the science of Marxism for hope. Using my son-in-law’s story, I want to explain why this man remains a poster child for capitalism in light of the relevance of Marx's writings on philosophy and economics in today’s world in these ways: having been on both sides of the society divide - nonowning worker and nonworking owner, understanding ideology and ideological state behind Marx’s theory, and the scientific understanding of the class nature of society.

From this point on are NOTES I INTEND TO INCORPORATE IN THE BODY OF MY TEXT.

Beginning as a nonowning worker, at twenty years old my son-in-law convinced his father to open a surf shop in our desert community, an hour from the ocean. It flourished. He wasn’t alienated - to make indifferent or hostile from the workers or the nonworkers, but he enhanced – raised to a higher degree, the lives of his workers, his father and his own.


Marx describes society as being separated into "oppressor and oppressed" or in his time, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat (35).


The Glengarry Glen Ross clip we saw in class depicts greed fueling “progress,” inequality and poverty. In the scene, Blake (Alec Baldwin) is confronting the employees, “I would have them fire your fucken ass because a loser is a loser.” Blake is taking a business opportunity to brow beat workers who one would expect should be formulating and demanding another system where exploitation would be abolished.

• The price of labor in a free-market society is determined by the demand and competence of the individual worker.
• Even a scientific understanding of the class nature of society and the ideals of socialism on a scientific basis are not enough to dissuade this young family from the opportunities abounding in capitalism.
• many of his "radical" ideas are commonplace in our society today
• Although he gives praise where it is due, he sees capitalism only as an absolute step of society. Despite their merits, the bourgeoisie have failed to "[do] away with class antagonisms" and have only created "two great hostile camps" (37).

Consider the truths that Phil Mitchinson presents in his article The Living Ideas of Karl Marx. He says, and I believe this poster child would agree: (historical perspective of society)
"The bourgeoisie and its academic experts are at a loss to explain what is happening in the world. One would look in vain in the pages of the economic journals for a rational explanation of the world crisis of their system . . . But if you read the Manifesto, you will find an accurate description of the world, not as it was in 1848, but as it is now. Phenomena such as globalization, the concentration of capital, and the exploitation of labour under the guise of modern technology – all these things were not only predicted by Marx but explained scientifically. . . How contemporary Marx's words appear. Not just the growth and interdependence of the world market is predicted here, "In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations." But also the domination of that market by a handful of monopolies and the centralization and concentration of capital that this represents: "It has agglomerated population, centralized the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands.". . . The reduction of the workforce to the role of slaves to the machine, "in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time, or by increased speed of machinery."

Finally, The Marxist theory that class struggle is history’s driving force but capitalist opportunity is the place for the productive capacities of society
Where collective ownership would stifle dreams, imagination and potential
The fundamental ideology of communism, it holds that all people are entitled to enjoy the fruits of their labour but are prevented from doing so in a capitalist economic system
a social revolution isn’t needed to seize political power internationally through talent, dreams are

Marx argues that in capitalist society, an economic minority (the bourgeoisie) dominate and exploit the working class (proletariat) majority. Marx attempted to argue that capitalism was exploitative, specifically the way in which unpaid labor (surplus value) is extracted from the working class (the labor theory of value), extending and critiquing the work of earlier political economists on value. He argued that while the production process is socialized, ownership remains in the hands of the bourgeoisie. This forms the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society. Without the elimination of the fetter of the private ownership of the means of production, human society is unable to achieve further development.
property, power relations, wage labor and class. fruits of their labour . . . Expropriate to take possession of, esp. for public use by the right of eminent domain
Marx gave to the labor movement and Socialism a theoretical foundation. His social theory showed that social systems were in a continuous flow wherein capitalism was only a temporary form. His studies of capitalism showed that owing to the continuous development of perfection of technique, capitalism must necessarily develop to Socialism. This new system of production can only be established by the proletarians struggling against the capitalists, whose interest it is to maintain the old system of production. Socialism is therefore the fruit and aim of the proletarian class struggle

Marxism has done away with the old utopian views that Socialism would be brought about by the intelligence and good will of some judicious men; as if Socialism were a demand for justice and morality; as if the object were to establish an infallible and perfect society. Justice and morality change with the productive system, and every class has different conceptions of them. Socialism can only be gained by the class whose interest lies in Socialism, and it is not a question about a perfect social system, but a change in the methods of production leading to a higher step, i. e., to social production. . . part of their inner self; it dominates their thoughts, their feelings, their entire conception of the world. Because Marxism is the theory of social development, in the midst of which we stand, therefore Marxism itself stands at the central point of the great mental struggles that accompany our economic revolution.(Walker)


proletarian revolution — In order to overcome the fetters of private property the working class and Upon this, material foundation classes would be abolished and the material basis for all forms of inequality between humankind would dissolve.
Expropriation is politically motivated and forceful confiscation and redistribution of private property outside the common law, allegedly to establish social justice
encouraging economic growth.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 Ana Mejia’s blog
Heigh-Ho Marx!
The seven dwarfs spend their days mining for diamonds, rubies and other expensive stones. These stones can be seen as a commodity, which according to Karl Marx is "an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another" (Marx 665). Although it is not shown in the movie, it is safe to assume that these men then give the commodities produced to a person in a higher position who gives them some sort of wage. Judging by their patched clothes and the tiny cottage they live in, the dwarfs make just enough money to survive. The diamonds they dig up, however, are sold for incredibly high prices, none of which they receive. This is exactly what Marx declares makes a capitalist economic system: "the appropriation from workers of more value than they are paid for" (Marx 665).
production is no longer the interest of capital (capitalism) or the state (socialism) but rather in the hands of the vast community whereupon the nature of social relations have lost their commodified forms and taken on production of a new system. This new system is characterized by producing not for profit, but for need. Need can be understood in a number of ways, but what we have here is the theoretical transformation of human labor into a new social role. No longer does the worker go to work to produce commodities for profit of his employer; rather, workers collectively produce for the expanding needs of a continuously developing people in the most efficient means.
Marxism 101: What is Communism?
Adjust font-size: + – Published February 12, 2008 by: Brian Rice http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/586829/marxism_101_what_is_communism.html

oppressors and the Oppressed. Marx sees this gulf as being about the same as lord and serf, prince and peasant, emperor and slave. "The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms" (Marx 66).
The forces that the bourgeoisie strived to create, the empires of industry and the struggling class of the common man, are to be their very "grave diggers" (50).


Work Cited

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto.
Mitchinson, Phil. “The Living Ideas of Karl Marx.” March, 2003. Web. April 20, 2010. http://www.marxist.com/150years/living_ideas_marx.html
Walker, Chas. “Marxism 101 - To each according to his Greed? Class 2.” Sep 4, 2009. Web. April 22, 2010. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A_YUUBpKV4