Mrks
Prior my admission to university as a sociology undergraduate, I’ve read a little the grand theory posed by Karl Marx. Marxism, as it is commonly coined, is an important tool to understand the world’s inequalities between those who have the means of production and those who lacked them.
In contemporary’s societies, inequality is widespread and getting worse at the moment, especially under the workings of the capitalist system.
We are told that a handful of elites control most of the wealth of the many. We see the poor homeless people at one end of the street and the rich personas at the other end.
We are told of the success stories of rich people. We witness massive protests globally over different issues of inequality ranging from fairness of race, gender and wealth. We are promised of a balanced level playing field in education despite knowing everyone has different capabilities.
We try to fit in a world that everyone shares. We try as best as we can to accommodate every human being living or dead.
There is a healthy obsession with inequality because there is a strong call for equality and diversity. They are a beautiful pair of virtues which decorate the world we live in. This is best representing the beauty of the human race. But can we ever get there at the global level?
As I started to read Marx’s works, it seemed like what he said makes sense because the problems are apparent. While I concur with some of his assertions, his notion of a classless society seems a little farfetched. It is believed that the capitalist system will rid itself for good to create an equal society for all through a revolution of the proletariats. (Most modern laws have altered themselves to benefit the rich under a bubble wrap of ‘equality’ because fairness is what is considered acceptable and a nice sounding word.)
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However I feel that a classless society can never be achieved because everyone has different interests and historical roots.
Even if the relations of productions are stripped and full democracy holds firm, the world will be managed differently at a micro level. If we are free to do what we want, without the expense of others, it would be awesome at first gaze. You can fish. You can swim. You can sleep. You need not work. You can pursue your own past time. You can feed your family and not the capitalist system. It may sound like a glimpse of heaven. However, when you realize that some people engage similar activities and achieving a greater marginal satisfaction, the world is not that equal after all. It will start up the demand and supply situation again unless money is not used as a mode of barter. (This will open another can of debate…)
Taking the argument further by hypothesising an equal society, everyone is the same according to nationality or any forms of human rights. However, any form of man-made legislation or rights is never equal in the first place. For example, certain races are underprivileged or privileged due to historical or biologically reasons. We can never erase history and pretending to live as though history struggles didn’t happened is literally living one big lie.
Can we ignore racist’s issues at heart when surfaced? Do we abuse our rights of freedom of speech to ridicule other races? Are our hearts strong enough to let go of innate differences that sets people apart?
As undergraduate, I am a strong believer of equality. Equality can be achieved albeit difficult. Difficult, in the sense, that it requires time and subversion of human consciousness at all level of society.
I like to believe that capitalism and democracy is a paradox. They do not complement each other because capitalism feeds on inequality of wealth. This is manifested to the way we perceive the world. We view most issues as inequality because it is staring right back at us with an invisible figure. Unless capitalism is evolving we can never eradicate inequality, especially on wealth movement.
We call for equality. We want equality. But is it what we want?
When we should be more tolerant and empathetic of each other? We shouldn’t impose our wills or ideologies on clueless people.
Where is the respect for our fellow beings? Where is the love?
