The one That Got Away

8. What are the main historical periods, and major classes, according to Marx? How did Marx envision the future society?

* Undeveloped stage of production, ancient communal and State ownership, feudal or estate property, capitalism.

o The major classes are bourgeoisie, the capitalist class of owners of private property, and the proletariat who were the class of owners of labor power. Pg 26. Marx argued that "wage laborers, capitalists, and landowners constitute the three big classes of modern society based upon the capitalist mode of production." For Marx this class struggle is the catalyst for social change and the prime mover of history.

 Marx envisioned future society to be a communistic society in which everyone is equal and able to obtain the same opportunities as others. Where there is no class struggle only equality. Waves of socialist revolutions.

9. What is the function of revolution in Marx's theory? In his emphasis of class, what factors might he have overlooked when accounting for revolutionary change?

* Revolution is the only way to create change. Revolution leads to socialism which leads to communism and totalitarianism. Revolution by the working class is inevitable. Especially since the working class make up the majority in population compared to the capitalist class.

o He might have overlooked the ability to use force and exert power. The capitalist class would most likely control the military and control the ability to stop a revolution. Also their ability to manipulate the masses with propaganda and illusions of equality and shared goods.

11. Explain Marx's line "A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing simply because in it the social character of men's labor appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labor..." What is your take on this?

* The commodity has a different meaning and symbolic trait to a working man/producer than it does to a consumer/capitalist. The commodity to the working man is his legacy and his blood sweat and tears. Their pain, suffering, and anguish is immortalized in a product and shaped into the goods of the capitalist bourgeoisie. Their agony is the happiness of the upper class. Their pain is the product to fuel the contempt of the capitalist class.

16. Discuss the various forms of suicide defined by Durkheim. Explain why Durkheim's work Suicide is significant for the discipline of sociology as a whole.

* Suicide cannot simply be explained by individual psychological problems. Two social facts influence suicide rates: Integration (the strength of attachment people feel to society), and Regulation (or the degree of external constraint on people). Types of suicide are EGOISTIC SUICIDE, a lack of integration; ALTRUISTIC SUICIDE, too much integration; ANOMIC SUICIDE, too little regulation; FATALISTIC