What is Reality? A Marxian Analysis of Modern Day America

Reality. Totally, in my face? Not necessarily. The American way has become a way of deception. No longer does society rely on intelligence or morality, but on brand names and others social qualifiers to distinguish the bourgeoisie from the proletariat. The entire way of American life has been disguised behind dollar signs. Marx realized that the individual is subtly being coaxed into the corporate way of living through the blind hope of capitalism and the desirability of consumerism.

World history is not a tale of constant class struggle, but of humans versus corporation. Marx defined religion as the opium of society, a drug that blinds the people from the reality of their entrapped lives. And Marx is right. But he forgot to observe that the people paid for this drug, and religion was apart of the very class warfare he centered his philosophy on. In this sense, the Catholic Church was the worlds first dominate corporation. It held a monopoly over the people, it forced them to pay and pray everyday. The church centered and manipulated human life. Everything was at the mercy of a select few who were decidedly morally superior to the rest of the people. But these people were nothing but capitalists, benefiting from the insecurities of the people, much like the industrial-military complex banking on America’s Cold War fear during the 1950’s and terrorism fears of 2001. They forced the believers to pay their way into heaven. The clergy were the bourgeoisie, holding down the proleteriat with images of eternal damnation, fiery death, and unending limbo if they did not make the sacrifice of the all-mighty dollar. The Protestant Reformation destroyed the corporate church, and instead allowed business entities to soon monopolize human life.

Consequently, the explosion of industrialization and destruction of religious corporatism led to the control of business that exists in America now. Business has become the religion of America. People live for business, for Abercrombie and Fitch shirts, for chances to earn another twenty-five cents an hour while really not moving up at all. One is made to feel guilty for taking vacations, for taking days off of work to care for their children, for not working unpaid overtime. No longer does one pray to God, but one gets on their knees and prays for mercy from their corporate Gods (can I get a Christmas bonus please o’ charitable rich one?). One is stigmatized, defined, and characterized all by the work that they do and the money that they earn. Sentimental and emotional satisfaction have no economical value, so they do not exist within the capitalist society, and are slowly being forced out by the work environment.

This connects to another issue: the stripping of relationships to pure money value. In a 1985 sociological survey, it was noted that four year olds asked for an average of five toys for Christmas, but received fourteen. Parents try to equate their love with money, and blatantly buy their child’s affection. Life is defined by the things one does for their family and friends in terms of money. Emotions are pushed aside, for the real way to tell how much someone loves you is by how much they spend on you, right?

But how is this system dominant when the negative effects appear so obvious? Today there is a continuation of this corporate dominance through the utilization of the middle class by the upper class to maintain social order. Like Marx examines in Capital, society operate on keywords and deceptions meant to continue the middle class economic position. What is college? Is it really higher learning? Or is it just a way of ensuring that the middle class remains in the middle class? Upon reflection, college is a day camp for rich white kids. What does one learn in college that separates it from high school? Furthermore, why can education not be free, or why cannot one learn the things in high school learned in college that are so key to economical success? The answer is because it would disrupt social conditions. The capitalists could no longer distinguish between bourgeoisie and proletariat if the factor of college did not exist. The entire idea of being qualified is really showing that you too are apart of the middle class establishment. Instead of displaying intelligence, being qualified is equal to having a piece of paper identifying that one had to pay a large amount of money for some classes. But the poor cannot pay for these classes, and the middle and upper class are the only ones able to benefit from the education system. The lower class are teased with phrases such as “if you put your mind to it, you can do anything”, but are faced with a reality where they have no clue how to attain the power or wealth that others have. Thus the previous social conditions are applied to another generation with the deception of equal opportunity for everyone.

Likewise, the habits of Americans are reinforcing this capitalist dream. Instead of seeing the big picture, people fill their time with shopping, sporting, and working. The full picture seems not to matter, for rather it is much more important for one to get their Kashmir sweater than for someone else to eat. Life is now equated in terms of what one wears, how much one spends, and how much one works. Everything reflects this image, like a Polo Sport shirt, exuding “hey, I too am apart of this monopolistic system, let us go exploit some people.” People are forced to spend money they do not have and embrace a system they are victims of, which is the system of mass consumerism. Do the lower and middle class benefit from going into debt to buy eighty-dollar sweaters? No, but they still engage in this behavior to appear as they are apart of the social hierarchy. No, they tell themselves, they are not victims of it but conquerors of it, able to spend all the money in the world that they do not have.

Random Capitalist Dialogue:

1: Hey, let’s go buy some stuff
2: Yes, I don’t have any money to spend though
1: Yes, neither do I.
2: But our Plastic Gold Bullion shall suffice.
1: Spending money I don’t have?
2: It’s the American Dream.

Have you turned on the television really? This is what the chants say. Buy. Buy. Buy more. You do not need money to buy. Buy now. Your country needs it. Help out struggling corporations. We are going to go bankrupt unless you spend the money you will never have. From Rudolph Gulliani telling Americans to fulfill their duty by going out and spending, to constant reports on consumer spending, society makes one feel guilty if one does not bankrupt themselves on unnecessary goods. It is beautiful in a disgusting way in which corporate America is able to turn a tragedy into a reason to spend money. Fight terrorism, spend. Buy. Go ahead. It’s the American way. Watch me, I will spout off some lines about how I love America, donate half a million dollars, and tell people to buy me [I being corporation].

America has morphed into an ultra-capitalistic nightmare. Everything is value, a symbol of money and class, disgusting our emotional side but presenting us with no alternatives. Our lives revolve around money, and we know no other way to conduct ourselves. But anyway, I need to go buy some overpriced, foreign sweatshop made shirts at the bookstore for my parents with their own money, and then spend some money that I do not have on illegal drugs. That is the American dream, and I would not have it any other way.