09-18-2012, 06:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-18-2012, 06:44 AM by FireIceTalon.)
^^But of course, comrade Eppie.
Commodity Fetishism is much more powerful, and in many ways, much more volatile than religion is. CF is the essence of Capitalist greed and consumption - it was the perfect tool to produce bullshit (with a little advertising, people can be convinced to buy anything, no matter how useless it may be) that people somehow think is intrinsically valuable, and the ultimate compliment to cheap credit (don't have the cash to buy garbage? NP, just slap it on a piece of plastic for convenience and pay more later with interest - you now have the power buy things with money you dont have!!).
Religion, while used as an instrument to divide the working class, doesn't directly harm them economically. CF, however, does - it is almost like religion but in a economic context - instead of praying and worshipping gods, we worship Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nike, or Apple instead. Culturally, it really turns much of society into a bunch of shallow, mindless material consumers - where hamburgers, designer clothes, sports/luxury cars, or diamond rings mean more than a college education or reading a book for some folks. People's existence has come to be defined by this crap, and they express a relationship to the products and money, instead of with each other. I personally think CF is the peak of "alienation". Pretty sad, when you think about it.
Commodity Fetishism is much more powerful, and in many ways, much more volatile than religion is. CF is the essence of Capitalist greed and consumption - it was the perfect tool to produce bullshit (with a little advertising, people can be convinced to buy anything, no matter how useless it may be) that people somehow think is intrinsically valuable, and the ultimate compliment to cheap credit (don't have the cash to buy garbage? NP, just slap it on a piece of plastic for convenience and pay more later with interest - you now have the power buy things with money you dont have!!).
Religion, while used as an instrument to divide the working class, doesn't directly harm them economically. CF, however, does - it is almost like religion but in a economic context - instead of praying and worshipping gods, we worship Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nike, or Apple instead. Culturally, it really turns much of society into a bunch of shallow, mindless material consumers - where hamburgers, designer clothes, sports/luxury cars, or diamond rings mean more than a college education or reading a book for some folks. People's existence has come to be defined by this crap, and they express a relationship to the products and money, instead of with each other. I personally think CF is the peak of "alienation". Pretty sad, when you think about it.
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"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)