Sunday, March 17, 2013

Sandra LaFave
 — The Marxist Critique of Consumer Culture


Sunday evening reading. Particularly significant is section III, on "the good life," which analyzes Marx's debt to Aristotle on the good life.


The Marxist Critique of Consumer Culture
Sandra LaFave
 | West Valley College

6 comments:

Matt Franko said...

This is elitist.

She thinks that people who dont share her norms or see things her way are "brainwashed" or something...

So what if folks buy Nike Michael Jordan garb? Who is that hurting?

Or so what if some folks want to "work" for a living?

This is where Marxists go off the rails... "observing but not perceiving", "hearing but not understanding"...

Her whole premise here is based on her moron belief that "We're out of money" and there isnt enough to go around, so "conserve the precious little we have" type of thing.... "dont listen to Madison Ave. they will separate you from what little money you have and we have"...

The whole thing here depends on being out of paradigm. This whole thing crumbles into dust if we are able to realize the truth that we are NOT "out of money".

This woman is a textbook "out of paradigm Marxist".

Her's is a "scarcity" view of the world when we have great surplus, what we have "scarcity" in is "money" because of morons who don't "get the math" and/or are Libertarians.

I'd guess she is the former.

TIP for Marxists: Stick to the concept of 'surplus value' and the just distribution thereof.

rsp,



Bob Roddis said...

Hell just froze over. I totally agree with Mr. Franko that the woman is an elitist. But he always goes off the rails when it comes to economic analysis.

Roger Erickson said...

Maybe the rails in hell were iced up, Bob. :)

Either of you could have slipped either way - at different sections of the unending course.

Tom Hickey said...

So what if folks buy Nike Michael Jordan garb? Who is that hurting?

Wikipedia/Nike/Human rights concerns

Tom Hickey said...

BTW, this is not just Marx. See Roman Catholic social teaching and liberation theology. This has been attacked as the Christianization of Marxism, just as "Keynesianism" has been portrayed as socialism.

Tom Hickey said...

Or so what if some folks want to "work" for a living?

It's not about wanting to work but having to work under conditions that are inhuman. The one hiring has freedom to set the conditions; the one looking for work has to accept the conditions imposed.

Most of the complaining of US business about "excessive regulation is about worker rights and protections including safety and bargaining power " hurting "competitiveness." The answer of many US business is to export jobs to countries which allow worker exploitation through absence of regulation. In addition, neocolonialism and neo-imperialism is about obtaining cheap resources through exploitation of workers and the environment.