Final Exam

Short Essay Prep -

Marx and industrial revolution - Connecting ideas

Industrial revolution left the world so wealthy yet left the people building that welath so miserable.

Industrial revolution

• Shifted production from small scale artisan shops to massive factories

• Results: Immense productive power, rigid social structure (inherently exploitative)
  

Notes: Marx believed the industrial revolution divided society.

Two groups - The Burguers (owners of products) and the P (workers)

Because of the industrial revolution humans stopped creating with freedom and creativity. Now their work was somly done with the purpose of survival - a paycheck

This lost of control over what work to produce led to alienation to: their work, people, the loss of the species-being.

Species-Being

• Our essence as creative, social producers

• Unlike animals (that only produce as a mean for survival), humans produce even when they are free form physical need

  • “pour” ourselves into the object we create

  • we should see ourselves reflected on the work we produce

Notes:

So wen the industrial revolution changed the structure from artisans → big factories. Now the people was producing like animals, as a mean to survive, as a mean to obtain a paycheck. The work done by the regular person was not theirs anymore and it doesnt reflect them

Alienation

• When the industrial revolution meets capitalism

• Workers dont own the factories or tools

  • they dont own it. So they become alienated from their own nature

4 types of alienation:

• alienation from the product - make it, but dont own it. Belongs to capitalist → more you build, more power the system has control over you

• alienation from process - you dont decide how to work. You’re just a “cog in the machine” doing repetitive tasks

• alientation from species-being - work becomes a means to survival rather than a creative expression of your humanity

• alienation from others - you are forced to compete with other workers for jobs and wages, viewing them as rivals rather than collaborators

Class

Divided between:

• The bourgeosie

  • own the means of production (factories) and buy labor

• The proletariat

  • they own nothing. Sell their labor power to survive

Ideology

• The invisible control

• the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class

• Ideology - makes capitalism seem natural, inevitable or fair. “if you work hard you will get rich”

• Religion, law and culture are built on top of the economic base to justife and maintain the power of the owners

NOTES:

Puting everything together ~

Industrial revolution (engine) → New tech creates the factory system and changes how we live and work

Alienation → becuase you dont own the factory, you’re separated from your products and your creative nature - becoming more of a tool than a human

    Alienation from product (u dont own it), alienation from process (repetitive work), alienation from species-being (work becomes a mean for survival instead of creative), and alienation from others (rivalry between each other)

Class → this system divides people into two. Those who own factories, and those who sell their labor to survive

Ideology → To keep the workers from rebelling against this unfair split, the ruling class spreads “ruling ideas” that make the system seem natural or fair

The goal: Class consciousness.

Marx wants workers to see thru ideology, realize they’re being alienated and unite as a class to reclaim their species-being

Color Blind Racism

• Modern ideology

Moral Panics

A widespread fear that a specific thing/person/group (folk devil) threatens the values and safety of society

key: fear is disproportionate to the actual threat - reaction way bigger than problem

5 components of a moral panic

Concer - measurable surge in anxiety

Hostility - pick of who is the folk devil

Concensus - overall agreement of “something must be done”

Disproportionality - fear bigger than danger

Volatility - as fast as it came, it can dissapear fast as well

Who builds the panic?

Media - sensationalism

Religious groups or activists - trying to be heros and advocate for that concensus “something must be done”

Police and courts - pass laws or make more arrests to show they’re doing something about it

What are they really about?

Symptom of social displacement

When a society is going thru a massive scary change (like industrial revolution) → they feel anxious but people dont identify why

• they use the folk devil as a scapegoat instead of dealing w complex, invisible economic shifts happening

Boundary maintance - Society trying to redefine what is right and wrong during confusing times

Importance of historical context -

• satanic panic in 80s: reaction to changing family structures and more women entering the workforce