Marxist Flashcards
Alienation
State which comes about when worker is deskilled and made to perform fragmented, repetitive tasks in a sequence whose nature and purpose he or she has no overall grasp
Materialist philosophy
Tries to explain things without assuming the existence of a world, or of forces, beyond the natural world around us, and the society we live in
Reification
Way, when capitalist goals and questions of profit and loss are paramount, workers are bereft of their full humanity and are thought of as hands or the labour force, so that, the effects of industrial closures are calculated in purely economic terms; people become things
Dialectic
Opposing forces or ideas bring about new situations or ideas
Base
Material means of production, distribution, and exchange
Superstructure
Cultural world of ideas, art, religion, law, and so on; determined by nature of the economic base
Economic determinism
Cultural ideas are determined or shaped by the nature of the economic base
Art/literature theory
Good art always has a degree of freedom from prevailing economic circumstances, even if these economic facts are its ultimate determinant
Marxist literary criticism
Maintains that a writer’s social class, and its prevailing ideology have a major bearing on what is written by a member of that class
Engelsian
Stresses the necessary freedom of art from direct political determinism
Leninist
Insists on the need for art to be explicitly committed to the political causes of the Left
Overdeterminism
An effect which arises from a variety of causes, that is, from several causes acting together, rather than from a single (economic) factor
Relative autonomy
In spite of the connections between culture and economics, art has a degree of independence from economic forces
Ideology
Althusser - system of representations endowed with an existence and a historical role at the heart of a given society
Decentering
Structures which have no essence, focus, or centre
Repressive structures
Institutions which operate by external force
Idealogical structures or state ideological apparatuses
Groupings which foster an ideology which is sympathetic to the aims of the state and the political status quo
Hegemony
The whole lived social process as practically organized by specific and dominant meanings, values, and beliefs of a kind which can be abstracted as a world view or class outlook
Interpellation
Trick where we are made to feel that we are choosing when we really have no choice
Real forces that create human experience
Economic systems that structure human societies; for Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities
Material circumstances
Economic conditions
Historical situation
Social/political/ideological atmosphere generated by material conditions
Marxist analysis focuses
On relationships among socioeconomic classes, both within a society and among societies, and it explains all human activities in terms of the distribution and dynamics of economic power
Marxist praxis (methodology)
Dictates that theoretical ideas can be judged to have value only in terms of their concrete applications
Bourgeoisie
Those who control the world’s natural, economic, and human resources
Proletariat
Majority of the global population who live in substandard conditions and who have always performed the manual labor
Marx belief that few Marxists now believe
Proletariat will one day spontaneously develop the class consciousness needed to rise up in violent revolution against their oppressors and create a classless society
Major socioeconomic divisions in America
Homeless, poor, financially established, well-to-do, extremely wealthy (underclass, lower class, middle class, upper class, and aristocracy)
Marxist theory definition
Works to make us constantly aware of all the ways in which we are products of material/historical circumstances and of the repressive ideologies that serve to blind us to this fact in order to keep us subservient to the ruling power system
America - 2 important socioeconomic realities
- Wealthy in position of power who decide who pays the most taxes and how the money will be spent
- Poor receive but a small portion of the funds earmarked for them because much of it goes, through kickbacks and creative bookkeeping, into the pockets of the wealthy
American dream
Blinds middle class by telling them that financial success is simply the product of initiative and hard work
Competition
To have better than what others have and belief of getting ahead
False consciousness/false ideal
When an ideal functions to mask its own failure and real purpose is to promote the interests of those in power
Classism
Ideology that equates one’s value as a human being with the social class to which one belongs, inborn quality
Patriotism
Ideology that keeps poor people fighting wars against poor people from other countries; rich can get out of combat; poor see themselves as members of a nation so don’t band together globally
Religion
According to Marxism, ideology that keeps the faithful poor satisfied with their lot in life, or at least tolerant of it; what human beings do in God’s name - organized religion is focus
Rugged individualism
Ideology that romanticizes the individual who strikes out alone in pursuit of a goal not easily achieved, a goal that often involves risk and one that most people would not readily undertake
Consumerism
Ideology that says I’m only as good as what I buy
Use value
Commodity value based on what it can do
Exchange value
Commodity value based on money or other commodities for which it can be traded
Sign-exchange value
Commodity value based on social status it confers on the owner
Commodification
Act of relating to objects or persons in terms of their exchange value or sign-exchange value
Imperialism
The military, economic, and/or cultural domination of one nation by another for the financial benefit of the dominating nation with little or no concern for the welfare of the dominated
Colonize the consciousness
To convince subordinate people to see their situation the way the imperialist nation wants them to see it, to convince them, for example, that they are mentally, spiritually, and culturally inferior to their conquerors and that their lot will be improved under the guidance and protection of their new leaders
