The idea of classism and class warfare has been in human society since the beginning of civilization. There has always been a sense of the powerful (the rich and influential), and the powerless (the poor in this case). It has almost always been the fact that the rich control how the world works and what goes on, and the consequences of these decisions in turn affect the poor in one way or another. The idea that someone is superior to another human being due to their accumulation of material goods has also been prevalent from society to society throughout time. One might think it is human nature due to the fact of how long class warfare has occurred and the fact that appears in almost every society regardless of who it is.
This idea of classism is discussed by Karl Marx in his writings "Alienated Labor," with the focus on past few centuries during the age of capitalism. In his writings he states that there are essentially two classes, the owners and the workers. The workers are poorer and do not have the resources that the owners have, and in a sense are losing their identity. He writes that the workers are alienated from the products they produce, the work they do, the reason they are doing the work, as well as an alienation from their fellow man. He also talks about how human beings like to find meaning in the work they do, and what an individual's work means to him. He uses this as a way to prove that there is alienation because people now work to survive in today's world as opposed to working to find meaning in something.
One perfect example of Marx's fourth point, the alienation from the fellow man, is the movie V for Vendetta. This movie portrays a man struggling to bring down the rule of the few who have taken control of society and has limited the freedoms of the citizens, because they have wronged him and others for their personal gain. V is not only fighting to save his soul, but also to free society from the rule of the few. It is evident in this movie how the "workers" in this movie live with fear and there is tension pent up inside them with no way to get it out. All of this tension and anger towards the "owners" is just a result of their alienation from their labor.
The idea of superiority due to possessions in my opinion feeds to our basic instincts, and does not use much of our evolved human reason. The identity that humans have does not come from what we have but instead of how we live. Everyone for the most part all start out on the same level of cognition, but the only thing that differentiates individuals at first is their access to resources. Just because somebody is born into ore money than someone else, in no way constitutes them being above them.
Your last sentence needs to be screamed to the world. However, in our society, it is hard to make that differentiation. CEOs of major corporations don't see their workers as humans. I mean, take Wall Street, for example. These men and women work tirelessly day and night trying to make a profit for their company to get money for themselves. The bigger the profit, the more they seem to get for themselves. Do the CEOs of Goldman Sachs really think about those people's lives? Probably not. All they are hoping for is more sells, more trades, and more money for their pockets. The workers become worker ants while they sit around and wait for their pay grade. V for Vendetta was a GREAT movie for showing this concept. V lost his own identity through the testing they did on him, so he worked tirelessly to become a martyr for the working class. He started to realize that things needed to change because they say him as simply inhumane and lower than them, which is what caused the human testing in the first place. There is more to the working class than simple dollar signs.
ReplyDeleteWell though-out post Ben.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said this, "He uses this as a way to prove that there is alienation because people now work to survive in today's world as opposed to working to find meaning in something." This quote you posted shows how workers lose their human identity. Sometimes I believe it is their fault, but other times not. For instance, I know some corporations just view the workers as a source for profit and as expendable. We see this in modern times with companies like Nestle which exploit the impoverished overseas and abroad. However, we also have examples of workers, who get lost in their work, and they simply completely identify themselves by their work (like a Wall Street broker, who identifies himself by how much money he or she brings in).