Okay so this is gonna blow most modern people's minds, but:
According to David Graeber, in the mediaeval age most adults owned their own means of production. The land belonged to the local lord and you paid taxes on it, but you owned the tools and you had a kind of ownership of the land, cause feudalism is hierarchies of land ownership.
Let's say you're a farmer. As a youth, you'll go and work as a farmhand or a milkmaid on a more experienced farmer's farm. When you become sufficiently experienced, you'll marry. The wife's family gives the husband a bunch of money, and he uses it to buy his own farm. Then he takes on farmhands and milkmaids.
Ever heard of a masterwork? An apprentice artisan, like a blacksmith or a painter, needs to make a masterwork as their final graduation project, and then they become a master, and they're expected to get their own studio/forge.
During the industrial revolution when people started doing wage labour, for other people, as a full career, it had social consequences. People felt like they were perpetually trapped in adolescence. Because you never got to own your own means of production.
So Marx is saying, we used to all get private property as we grow older (well, men used to). But now 90% of us are wage labourers, we're never going to have enough private property to get by. Even if you're, say, a digital artist, you're probably working on a painting app rented from a corporation, you don't own it. You don't own your advertising, you don't own your distribution, you don't own your payment processing, you don't own the house or office you work in.
That didn't used to be the case. 300 years ago, if you were a man artist, you'd work your way up to having your own atelier and do business face to face with your clients. Now they're charging us rent for everything. That's what Marx is saying.
I think the bigger issue is being too lazy to simply take the 10 seconds to look it up rather than submit a display of confident ignorance. It's not like you have to go take a bus to the library or something.
The Manifesto was indeed written in a deliberately sensational and popular style compared to his other works. It was meant to convey the ideas to your ordinary and unschooled person.
11 replies
Okay so this is gonna blow most modern people's minds, but:
According to David Graeber, in the mediaeval age most adults owned their own means of production. The land belonged to the local lord and you paid taxes on it, but you owned the tools and you had a kind of ownership of the land, cause feudalism is hierarchies of land ownership.
Let's say you're a farmer. As a youth, you'll go and work as a farmhand or a milkmaid on a more experienced farmer's farm. When you become sufficiently experienced, you'll marry. The wife's family gives the husband a bunch of money, and he uses it to buy his own farm. Then he takes on farmhands and milkmaids.
Ever heard of a masterwork? An apprentice artisan, like a blacksmith or a painter, needs to make a masterwork as their final graduation project, and then they become a master, and they're expected to get their own studio/forge.
During the industrial revolution when people started doing wage labour, for other people, as a full career, it had social consequences. People felt like they were perpetually trapped in adolescence. Because you never got to own your own means of production.
So Marx is saying, we used to all get private property as we grow older (well, men used to). But now 90% of us are wage labourers, we're never going to have enough private property to get by. Even if you're, say, a digital artist, you're probably working on a painting app rented from a corporation, you don't own it. You don't own your advertising, you don't own your distribution, you don't own your payment processing, you don't own the house or office you work in.
That didn't used to be the case. 300 years ago, if you were a man artist, you'd work your way up to having your own atelier and do business face to face with your clients. Now they're charging us rent for everything. That's what Marx is saying.
Did he actually say that? - hard doubt
It is a quote from the Manifesto of the Communist Party from 1848. It can be found on page 43 in this pdf.
User name of postcapitalism and have never read the Communist Manifesto
The baby leftists should be listening more than they are talking, though Im doubting you are a baby leftist, but a cosplaying liberal
Ah yes. Stoking infighting and blaming people for not knowing everything (which no one does). The truly wise.
Edit: Also postcapitalism does not necessarily mean communism.
I think the bigger issue is being too lazy to simply take the 10 seconds to look it up rather than submit a display of confident ignorance. It's not like you have to go take a bus to the library or something.
It was late at night - but point taken
If you are a liberal there is no infighting becusse liberals are not one of us.
If not communism what would it be?
Also maybe tone it down a bit.
Lulz, I read it and Capital 1 + 2 and a bunch of the other letters/notes. Just was quite a while ago I touched the “Manifesto”
I stand corrected though.
Don’t recall his writing in such a pop-psych way , but maybe it’s just the meme format or the fact only the Communist Manifesto had that writing style
The Manifesto was indeed written in a deliberately sensational and popular style compared to his other works. It was meant to convey the ideas to your ordinary and unschooled person.