This post aims to simplify some Marxist concepts by representing them as pictures and providing some brief definitions…
For more detailed posts on Marxism you might like any of the following:
- The Traditional Marxist Perspective on Society
- Eight Ways in Which Marxism is Still Relevant Today –
- Eight Criticisms of Traditional Marxism
- Marxist Theory of Society Revision Notes –
Feminisms
Capitalism and Class Structure
Society is structured like a pyramid, those with capital at the top
Society’s Structure is made up of institutions
Bourgeoisie and Proletariat
Exploitation
Lies at the heart of the capitalist system according to Marx
Surplus Value
Alienation
Where workers feel detached from their work, not at home in the work place, not in control, thus ‘alienated’
Ideological Control
Institutions such as the media teach the masses to be passive and not criticize the injustices of the capitalist system
Communism
An economic system based on shared ownership of the means of production
Revolution
Necessary to achieve Communism according to Marx
Repressive state apparatus
State institutions which perform ‘obvious’ social control – such as the police and the army
Ideological state apparatus
Institutions of the state which achieve social control through controlling people’s minds – namely schools
Organic Intellectuals
Middle class individuals who will emerge to educate the masses to be more critical of capitalism, according to Gramsci
Commodity Fetishism
Where we value material objects (and money) more than people and social relations
False Needs
The desire for unnecessary products created by advertising. False needs are necessary to keep capitalism going
Correspondence Principle
Where norms learnt in school prepare children for their future exploitation in work
Neo-colonialism
Where western global institutions make developing countries economically dependent on western countries
The reproduction of class inequality
Where inequalities between classes are carried on across the generations, as wealth and poverty get passed down
The Transnational Capitalist Class
The new global capitalist class – world political leaders, billionaire and heads of large companies etc.
Marxism in pictures final thoughts
Marxism is a pretty complex theory, and this post does ‘simplify to the extreme. For more in depth posts on Marxism, please follow the links on my Theory and Methods page!
Competition …. Win REVISE tokens!
Post a picture in the comments of a picture which you think represents a Marxist concept, along with a short (20-100 words) explanation of why it’s a relevant picture.
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded purely at my own sole discretion.
- First prize – 50 REVISE
- Second prize – 30 REVISE
- Third prize – 15 REVISE
- First ten entries all receive 2 REVISE each, just for entering!
- If you submit a hand-drawn original work of art or photo as part of your entry I’ll gift you 10 REVISE!
I’m going to make this a 6 month rolling competition and these prizes are going to be awarded EVERY MONTH – from December 2019 until May 2020.
WTF are ‘REVISE’ tokens?
The REVISE token is ‘ReviseSociology.com’ token. It’s basically a crypto-currency I’ve conjured out of virtual space which you can use on the site.
REVISE tokens can be redeemed for money off my revision resources and revision Webinars, all for sale in my Sellfy shop.
You’ll need a Steem account to receive your REVISE tokens. Steem is a decentralised, censorship resistant cryptocurrency based social media platform. You can sign up here, or drop me an email if you’d like a free account. Once you’ve got an account, I can send you your tokens!
NB signing up is a bit of a mission, but I’m on Steem myself and can thoroughly recommend it. Unfortunately there isn’t a viable way for me to truly integrated this Word Press site and my Steem account, so at this stage this is all separate. Integration will hopefully come in the future.
It’s just a bit of fun at this stage!
Redeeming REVISE tokens
ATM this process isn’t automated (it would cost me a fortune to pay someone to integrate all of this!) but if you want to purchase something and you’ve got some REVISE, just contact me (on here, on Steem, or via mail), tell me what you want to purchase and I’ll sort out a discount based on how many REVISE you’ve got!
You’ll need a Steem account to send me back the REVISE tokens so I can issue you the discount voucher.
If you would like a FREE INSTANT steem account, drop me a line, I’ve got about 100 free accounts I can give away!
The redeemable value of the revise token is a % off your purchase. So if you have 50 Revise then you get 50% off the purchase price. If you have 10 revise tokens, you get 10% off the purchase price.
This is up to a maximum discount of 100% of the purchase price!
You can also buy (and sell!) REVISE tokens on steem-engine.
Good luck with the competition and all the technicalities and working out the math!
Please post your competition entries in the comments below!
