In yesterday’s class we broke down
capitalism for what it really is. The narrative of capitalism is “you get what
you earned,” however this is far from the truth and that creates the contradiction
within capitalism itself. The profit made by an industry is not allocated proportionally;
the workers’ labor is exploited and it will continue to be exploited to
subsistence levels. Marx tells us that this will only continue so long until
the revolution of the proletariat and the following dictatorship of the
proletariat. After this dictatorship, there will be a classless society, which
Marx believes will be a utopian society. However, points were also brought up
in class that would make this utopian society improbable and impractical.
Class is determined by property;
there are the haves and have not’s. So, in this classless society, there are no
individual property rights and everything is made public. If everything is made
public, then everyone will own the same thing, but if everyone owns it, nobody
owns it. The fact that we were born in a capitalist society makes communism
hard to comprehend. We know that if incentive is taken out of the picture, then
no one will work for their share if what they need is just given to them. The
public good will never be the sole purpose of the individual, because it would
take every individual to think this way. This is highly impractical, because
not all people will have what’s best in mind for everyone. Is it possible to
have a communist society that is wholly utopian? In history we have seen that
communism ultimately fails in practice, but does that mean it is impossible to
create a functioning communist society that isn’t corrupt?
However,
what are the possibilities of there actually being a revolution of the
proletariat? I couldn’t imagine our society reaching this breaking point. Is it
possible for something to change the relationship between the Bourgeoisie and
the Proletariat before revolution happens? Through production by estranged
labor, we have profit, and it is not allocated proportionally to every ones’
work. Not only are workers not being paid for the work they’ve done, but
estranged labor alienates us from everything in our nature. Is it possible to
change this relationship between the workers and owners of production?
As far as utopian societies go, I believe that ideas of imaginary ideal societies are not grounded in material conditions of society. Moreover, Marx would definitely claim that not only is a proletarian revolution possible, but that it is also inevitable. I definitely agree that it is hard for us to imagine such a revolution occurring in the United States. As we see our middle class growing stronger and stronger every decade, we are left to wonder, will they grow strong enough to revolt and overthrow the bourgeoisie? This would, presumably, eventually lead to a world revolution in that all capitalist countries throughout the world experience this same phenomenon. Interestingly enough, the desire to overthrow capitalism expressed by Marxists resulted in a concept called "proletarian internationalism," which refers to the idea that capitalism has grown so much that it will take an international effort to stop its spread. That being said, I don't believe that it is possible to change the relationship between workers and owners of production; that is a simple feature of a capitalistic society. Were it to change, the society would likely fall under a different category.
ReplyDeleteI think an actual revolution of the proletariat is incredibly improbable, for one simple reason: the "American Dream." Now, whether that dream is actually achievable or not is an entirely different topic, but I would say that enough people believe in it enough that it renders them unwilling to actually revolt. If a member of the lower class believes that their position (or their family's) is temporary and changeable, then he/she has incentive to strive towards that goal through the system currently in place. The only way a proletariat revolution is possible, in my opinion, is if this dream is viewed by either all or a massive majority of the proletariat as unattainable and fictional, and even then, the logistics of actual successful revolution come into play, but that, too, is a topic for another post.
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