Karl Marx & Conflict Theory BR: What negative responses have people had to the recent election, and Donald Trump’s winning the election? Do you agree or disagree with them? Why? Karl Marx & Conflict Theory

Modern Perspectives of Society There are many important sociologists that have been part of the field of sociology. The three that are considered most important are: Emile Durkheim, who focused on Functionalism Karl Marx and Conflict Theory Max Weber and Symbolic Interactionism

(Government, Family, religion, education, culture, etc. Karl Marx (1818-1883) Though widely hated and loved, Karl Marx is certainly one of the most influential social thinkers in recent history. Karl Marx believed that the structure of society was based on the idea of base and superstructure. In his mind, the economic structure or economy of a society formed the base of it, and on top of that developed culture and social institutions, aka the superstructure Thus, to Marx, the base / economy is what determines what a society will be like. Superstructure (Government, Family, religion, education, culture, etc. The Base (aka the Economy)

Marx and Conflict Theory In Karl Marx’s mind, the best way to bring about change to an unfair system is conflict. Conflict leads to people seeing things as they truly are, not just what they want them to be. He saw the biggest potential for conflict between two different groups: the owners of the means of production, aka the bourgeoisie, and the laborers, aka the proletariat. Marx saw these conflicts appearing consistently throughout history, especially during times of social revolution. These “class antagonisms” as he saw it arose out of one class dominating another.

How we get into Conflict After and during the Industrial Revolution, Karl Marx saw that this new class factory owners (bourgeoisie) were exploiting and taking advantage of the working class more and more. Horrible conditions, the use of child labor, exposure to extreme conditions and chemicals, etc., all a result of capitalism, the economic system of the day, led Marx and his wealthy friend Frederick Engels to declare capitalism the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”. VID

Marx’s Alienation As the video mentioned, some of Karl Marx’s big ideas include the following: Alienation: There are four main types of this, as Marx saw them: Alienation from the product of one’s labor: unlike people of the past, such as watchmakers, gunsmiths, etc., people in the industrial age usually only participate in one small part of the process. They are not responsible for a completed watch, but just a fraction of it. This can be dissatisfying. Alienation from the process of one’s labor: The laborers in these systems do not get to control how their work is done, like they once could have before the division of labor. Now, they must follow rules and a system set up by their bourgeoisie overlords. Creativity is often discouraged and ignored. Alienation from others: workers are encouraged to compete against one another; their coworkers are not friends, they are the enemy! Each must outdo the other to move up in the world. This makes relationships hollow and disingenuous. Alienation from one’s self: As a result of all this, people lose sense of the meaning of their own job and lives. They don’t take pride in their work; they are simply a cog in the greater machine.

Final Marx Thoughts: Another idea of Marx was that of False consciousness. This is when one’s own ideals, beliefs, ideology, etc., are in fact not in the best interest of themselves. How does this happen? Well, the ideas of competition, and hard work being its own reward, for example, much more benefit the bourgeoisie than the laborer, who is left alienated. Marx argues that the laborers / proletariat ought instead to replace false consciousness with class consciousness, where one recognizes where they are (their class) in society, and thus can actively strive to better that position, for themselves and others within their society.

HW: Karl Marx Write-up Do you agree with Karl Marx? Is the society that we live in broken and oppressive? Or, is he completely wrong? Or perhaps he is somewhat right, but also wrong in some ways too? You will write an essay that answers some of these questions, analyzing the answer for yourself.