After reading Dr. Craig's blog post about Marxist theory, I feel that I was able to gain a better understanding of Marxism in general as well as the Marxist theory.
Who knew that one could walk into a seemingly innocent department store and suddenly be suckered into Marxist beliefs? Or so we think. I must say that I have to agree with Dr. Craig's idea that the Manifesto is not viewed the same way in today's capitalistic society. While the pants on display may tell of a revolution, however, its not the same revolution Marx wants us to partake in - communism. Instead it is a "fashion revolution" - a revolution that these pants will mark "a radical change" in our society. We'll call it, "Burgundy is the new Black!" Lost in this new change, are the ideas of balancing out the ruling class because when you look closely, you are actually helping the ruling class in some sweatshop out there.
The most interesting part of Dr. Craig's lecture was his sports analogy. How many times have we, either as students or as adults, on a fall Sunday afternoon invited a few friends over to relax and watch the "game of the week?" Pretty much all of us. Yet, how would you feel if you realized that your nice, relaxing day away from the office, still considers you to be "working?" With Dr. Craig's statement, "American ruling class ideology continuously spins narratives that attempt to limit the working class’s ability to recognize and respond to its own subjugation," we as a society, do not even recognize that we are being fooled by the ruling class. Our distraction is really a money maker for the ruling class, whom is earning a profit off each potato chip we eat, case of beer we buy, and advertisements we watch. Yet, even for those who do recognize this hegemonic power, we, as "workers in the low-wage" jobs continue to take the ideology of the ruling class as truth. We do nothing to change the situation - it just continues to happen.
Even with literature, we can easily become consumed and "distracted" by the plot of the book without truly understanding what the text is trying to tell say. In order to not become too distracted or sucked in - whether it be at a sports bar, a department store display, or even in a great piece of literature - one must truly look deeper and closer to the meaning that is revealed underneath the surface.
Until next time...
pelipuff
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1 comment:
Although I enjoyed your post, I especially enjoyed your conclusion where you talked about how easy it is to become distracted by the plot of a book without truly understanding what the text is trying to say. This seems to relate to the shopping trip Dr. Craig discussed in his post where the designer jeans were displayed alongside a copy of the Manifesto. To most, this display might only have had an aesthetic message, however through Marxism and Marxist thinking it seems we are able to draw a more significant meaning behind what the display is trying to say. Therefore, I agree with you that we must look more critically at not only literary texts but life around us in order to better understand the messages contained within them.
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