Lecture 7

Question 1

Primitive accumulation

Answer 1

Refers to how rich people became rich in capitalism which was very violent, bloody and unfair.
Standard explanation for Marx is a myth

Question 2

Primitive accumulation myth

Answer 2

An idea that is widely believed that there are 2 groups of people in the myth of primitive accumulation:

1. Hard working, smart, diligent, deserving, prepared (capitalist/bourgeoisie)
2. Lazy, not smart, not diligent, undeserving, unprepared (proletariat)

Question 3

Why is it a myth according to Marx?

Answer 3

It has nothing to do with how things turned out, he explains how this is the result of conquest, enslavement, robbery, and murder

Question 4

Yeomanry

Answer 4

small farmers who owned the land they cultivated

End of the 17th to the mid 18th century we saw them disappear

Question 5

Serf

Answer 5

an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord’s estate

Question 6

Enclosure process

Answer 6

Removing access of people to these lands and only giving access to certain people (privatizing land)

Question 7

Expropriation

Answer 7

To deprive someone of their means of production (14th century)

Question 8

Enclosure act

Answer 8

the process in which common lands are privatized – towns and churches rapidly deteriorated

Question 9

Airable land

Answer 9

Land that can be used to cultivate (rich land)

Question 10

Feudalism

Answer 10

The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord’s land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection. (slowly decreasing into the 14 and 15th c)

Question 11

Glorious revolution

Answer 11

Brings bourgeoisie into power, before French revolution, takes place in 1688, brings William of Orange and bourgeoisie into power, now all land belongs to rising bourgeoisie

Question 12

Bloody legislation

Answer 12

Many people during this transition became baggers, homeless, vagabonds.
Because of this expropriation, laws were put in place. Marx says these laws were violent and unjust, people were being punished for bring forced into this life of homeless vagabonds
Henry the 8th: “beggars who are old and incapable of working get a ‘beggars’ license, capable beggars are to be whipped, beaten, and sworn to return to place of birth to work .2nd time caught, beaten and ear cut off, 3rd time caught, killed.”
Legislation that keeps wages down, laws that keeps working day as long as possible, state limits what companies can pay their workers, 11 days in jail if you pay higher wages than allowed, 21 days in jail if you accept these higher wages given to you. Workers combinations made illegal.

Question 13

Cultural Marxism/ Modern Marxist Theory

Answer 13

Culture is the central of oppression

Question 14

The Frankfurt School

Answer 14

Members connect Marxist ideas, in particular Freud (psychoanalytic dimensions) and Fabre

• Theodore Adorno
• Eric Fromm
• Herbert Marcuse

Question 15

Antonio Gramsci

Answer 15

Marxist scholar, wrote The Prison Notebooks, re-writes Marxism to incorporate culture – hegemony, domination through ideas/ culture. “society is not longer structured in the way that Marx and Engels saw it.

Question 16

Conspicuous consumption

Answer 16

Consumption of luxuries on a lavish scale in an attempt to enhance one’s prestige