Cultural Theory: Commodity Fetishism

College course lecture from Ron Strickland.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Strickland
• marxism
• commodity
• fetishism

[ramsfan920]

In my mind a fetish is a weird obession with a certain thing or person. So I have a negative connection of this theory as a result of that. How something is named plays a big role in how I view something, so solely because of the name I am not a fan of this theory.

[rlstrick]

Well, Marx actually agrees with you. In naming the phenomenon "commodity fetishism" Marx wasn't promoting fetishism--he was criticizing the way people look at the things they produce in a capitalist economy, and arguing that this habit of mistaking the "thing" for the life process makes people unhappy.

[iaeruo]

speaking of marx, i received as a hand-me-down the book "the theory of poverty" by ep thompson. all i can make of it is some kind of critique on althusser, but its way beyond my grasp. has anyone else stumbled upon this book?

[rlstrick]

Thompson rejects Althusser's theory of ideological interpretation for its determinism--Althusser boxes himself in so that there seems to be no way to think outside the box of ideology. But if it leaves us wondering where to find revolutionary agency, Althusser's theory nonetheless offers a powerful lever of critique.

[Samanmotlagh]

Hi, I'm curious to know what marx' thoughts were on how a transparent and actual relationship between people is characterized by. How do we see eachother when not alienated from eachother according to Marx?

[rlstrick]

Thanks for your question. I think Marx and Engels' position was that it is impossible to articulate an un-alienated relationship from our current material/discursive framework. That is, humans would have to get closer to transparency before they could see what transparency would actually be like. I derive this answer mainly from Engels' critique of Utopian Socialism in "Socialist: Utopian and Scientific." There, Engels critices Utopian socialists for their "top-down" vision of the future.

[arguingplentifully]

But the important point at the moment is that the class system is very unfair.

For example, nobody can claim that blacks are biologically inferior.

But it's clear that blacks are very disproportionately poor.

If the class system was fair, blacks (who are naturally no more or less able than anyone else) would be spread proportionately among the classes.

But they're not. Therefore, a class system can be unfair, and surely a lot of the non-black poor needn't 'deserve' to be poor either.

[arguingplentifully]

Therefore, we have Commodity Fetishism, and see the simple efforts and workings of humanity, which we can control, as impersonal mystical 'market forces', just as humanity has been oppressed by the imaginary rule of gods, which are nothing more than inventions of humanity's own minds.

Hope that helps, which it probably doesn't.

I think I'll go and get a life now.

[Ahksmar]

@breezeman199 Who is Karl Marx?

[breezeman199]

What a crackpot Karl Marx really was. Hard to believe so many people have fallen under his spell.

[JusufJan]

what's the background music in the debut???

[BlunderCats]

@ramsfan920 i say just said, just noticed this was from 2 years ago

[BlunderCats]

@ramsfan920 what you just said is such stupid shite it makes my teeth ache. cheers though we all like to rage and feel superior

[JohananRaatz]

How to manage a democracy once it gets out of control: watch?v=BBezaI0bnAQ&

[scott92507]

This sheds little light upon Marx's ideas. He reads a good chunk of Marx's dense, abstract prose. Quoting is not explaining. When he does offer his commentary, it sounds little different from the Marx he quoted.

[tobiaswarwick]

@arguingplentifully ...following that line thought, it's a sad truth that it's only been a relatively brief amount of time that certain races have been allowed to trade equally and freely across the world. It's like turning up to card game half way though; your opponents will, of course, have more winnings than you at that point.