modern day society and Marxism...
Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2023 5:00 pm
I am reading a book about existentialism and Marxism..
and one of the concepts struck me... that of the Bourgeois,
and there is the other Marxist concept like the Proletariat..
classes of people who hold like minded ideals...
but in thinking about it, does anyone today, fits into
those classes? Not at all...
today, we have the wealthy and we have the working poor... and they
themselves don't think of themselves in terms of the wealthy or working poor...
people today, don't seem to see themselves in such terms... the idea
of belonging to a "class" such as envisioned by Marx, seems to have
gone by the wayside...and yet, we must ask why?
as is quite evident by the events of the last two hundred years,
that modernism, the modern age has leveled the playing field...
old ideas that had currency for centuries were diminished to the
point of no longer existing... and new ideas were established only
because of the new conditions... that Marxism and existentialism,
were only possible because of the loss of the old ideals and the
new conditions that made this thinking possible...
among the old ideas that were diminished by the modern age include
the idea of Monarchy, of the aristocracy, the rights established by
god, that human beings were now and forever fixed into their
class, be it the lower class or the middle class or the noble class....
there was very little movement between the various classes...
one born a slave, always a slave.. once born poor, always being poor...
the class you were born into is the class you died in...
one of the things that the new age brought about was the
the idea of mobility between the classes... but that is one idea
that Marxism didn't really change... the class system was alive and well
within Marxism... but in reality, the class system was dying...
or who among you fit into the class system of being Bourgeois
and who among fit into being a Proletariat? and who among you
fit into being the worker class that is described within Marxism?
even the idea in America of "blue collar'' and
''white collar''... has faded substantially... a great deal of the jobs
in America and elsewhere is within the service industry... and can
that be described as "blue'' or ''white'' collar?
the world since Marx has fractured and splintered....what was
a certainty in Marx's time is not even around today...
what was a certainty in Marx's time was the idea of factory
workers.. and in them, was the Marxists thinking about class...
that is the class that Marx thought would lead the "revolution''
into communism...and today, most people like me, work
in a factory lite situation, but not actually in a factory...
we no longer have the factories we used to have...
manufactory jobs have gone away in modern day America...
and those people have transitioned into service jobs of some sort
or have retired...
if the class system as described by Marx no longer exists,
then what about his predictions about the final structure
of society/history, being a "worker paradise?"
that goes down the tube...
which leaves us with a "now what" situation?
the very grounds upon which Marx said would be the creation
of a new society, no longer is there...the working class, which
in Marx eyes, was the workers in the factories...they
no longer exists, now what does that say about Marxism?
that the creation of a ''workers state" was no longer possible...
and if the final goal is gone within Marxism, what is left of Marxism?
Kropotkin
and one of the concepts struck me... that of the Bourgeois,
and there is the other Marxist concept like the Proletariat..
classes of people who hold like minded ideals...
but in thinking about it, does anyone today, fits into
those classes? Not at all...
today, we have the wealthy and we have the working poor... and they
themselves don't think of themselves in terms of the wealthy or working poor...
people today, don't seem to see themselves in such terms... the idea
of belonging to a "class" such as envisioned by Marx, seems to have
gone by the wayside...and yet, we must ask why?
as is quite evident by the events of the last two hundred years,
that modernism, the modern age has leveled the playing field...
old ideas that had currency for centuries were diminished to the
point of no longer existing... and new ideas were established only
because of the new conditions... that Marxism and existentialism,
were only possible because of the loss of the old ideals and the
new conditions that made this thinking possible...
among the old ideas that were diminished by the modern age include
the idea of Monarchy, of the aristocracy, the rights established by
god, that human beings were now and forever fixed into their
class, be it the lower class or the middle class or the noble class....
there was very little movement between the various classes...
one born a slave, always a slave.. once born poor, always being poor...
the class you were born into is the class you died in...
one of the things that the new age brought about was the
the idea of mobility between the classes... but that is one idea
that Marxism didn't really change... the class system was alive and well
within Marxism... but in reality, the class system was dying...
or who among you fit into the class system of being Bourgeois
and who among fit into being a Proletariat? and who among you
fit into being the worker class that is described within Marxism?
even the idea in America of "blue collar'' and
''white collar''... has faded substantially... a great deal of the jobs
in America and elsewhere is within the service industry... and can
that be described as "blue'' or ''white'' collar?
the world since Marx has fractured and splintered....what was
a certainty in Marx's time is not even around today...
what was a certainty in Marx's time was the idea of factory
workers.. and in them, was the Marxists thinking about class...
that is the class that Marx thought would lead the "revolution''
into communism...and today, most people like me, work
in a factory lite situation, but not actually in a factory...
we no longer have the factories we used to have...
manufactory jobs have gone away in modern day America...
and those people have transitioned into service jobs of some sort
or have retired...
if the class system as described by Marx no longer exists,
then what about his predictions about the final structure
of society/history, being a "worker paradise?"
that goes down the tube...
which leaves us with a "now what" situation?
the very grounds upon which Marx said would be the creation
of a new society, no longer is there...the working class, which
in Marx eyes, was the workers in the factories...they
no longer exists, now what does that say about Marxism?
that the creation of a ''workers state" was no longer possible...
and if the final goal is gone within Marxism, what is left of Marxism?
Kropotkin