Quick Question about Commodity Fetishism and Alienation

[Redcoyote]

Hello All,

One concept of Marxism that has always been hard for me to really pin down is what constitutes commodity fetishism and alienation. The way I've understood commodity fetishism is the way that consumers do not consider how or by whom commodities are produced -- in terms of the working conditions laborers often endure making said commodities.

And the way I've always understood alienation is when a laborer/worker is estranged from his/her work.

Anyone here willing to elaborate or clarify this further?

[Rooster]

Essentially, commodity fetishism is when people see the relations between people as relations between things. The value of things are seen as being determined by the market instead of being determined by the social relations that created them (labour time, etc).

You are right about alienation. Alienation is when you become alienated from something. During the labour process, this is usually the process itself and the things that you make. It's a common feature of wage-labour and helps to explain why people in more creative industries are highly regarded such as musicians or artists. Wage labour is when you sell your labour power to a capitalist, so you go in to work (which isn't yours), create things (that aren't yours) and you don't care because you're not making anything that you really need and have no input into it.

Of course, you can have both fetishisation and alienation of other things in life such as politics, religion, political parties, etc. It doesn't just stay within the scope of commodities. They're just one expression of social relations.

[Comrade Auldnik]

Commodity fetishism is when you get aroused reading Capital, nyuk nyuk nyuk.

But, in all seriousness, Comrade rooster has it down.

[TrotskistMarx]

Hello, indeed and we don't even have to be a Marxist scientist and psychiatrist to see the depression, sadness, boredom and low levels of happiness in the general american population. I think it is because the USA is a high-income oriented economic-political social system in which the only way to achieve high levels of motivation, inspiration, sensory-motivation, (external motivation from new sensations etc), stimulation is by earning lots of money, unlike other welfare states where health services are either free or a lot cheaper, where universities, colleges are either free or a lot more affordable than in the USA. And where many basic monthly services are subsidized by the government.

Another thing about the depressing, alienating nature of living in America is the urban planning, along with its boring cities that look like ghost towns, without sensory motivation, without book fairs, without rock music concerts, without many motivating popular health and fitness activities popularized for the general population. And with its extreme levels of sameness, of houses in many neighborhoods built exactly the same way and built by the same builder leads to a state of conformity. You can see the excess of sameness in the brands and types of cars. People driving the same brands and types of cars and built by the same car corporation.

The USA is extremely a society and system of sameness, everybody dresses the same, behaves in the same way, have the same mentality, the same political ideology, and its a pre-determined, fatalist system. Where opinions are all provided, the future is very pre-decided. Well, read these lyrics by the rock band Rush, that explain the levels of alienation in neoliberal corporate cities and societies:

SUBDIVISIONS BY RUSH

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory

Its a song about non-conformity and how society tries to make people into a conforming drone. This is particularily bad in most cities suburbs where the roads, the corners, the mini shopping centers, the buildings and the homes are built exactly the same by the same builder, where people drive the same types and brands of cars and high school is all about being part of the crowd. The song is about the need for conformity and mass consumerism in the neoliberal economic model we live in. Neoliberalism cannot function without it. When I listen to it, I hear an amazingly written eulogy for society by Neil Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

I also think it represents Neil Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson falling away a bit from their earlier beliefs, as they mentioned they had. There is nothing inherently wrong with suburbia or living in it, if that is what someone desires. A lot of people don't have the desire to go to "the bright lights." This song is clearly more about conformity, which can be found anywhere in United States: the suburbs, in the city, or "the far unlit unknown." In my opinion, the only flaw in this song is the focus on suburbia as the only place where conformity can be found. Popular opinion has been manipulated to belive that The Suburbs are the worst place for conformity.

Conformity also occurs when many people seek the same thing, including excitement in The Bright Lights (Everyone else is doing "the cool thing", so why shouldn't I?). That being said, Subdivisions is my favorite Rush song, and the best synth song ever. So much to write about this song. Basically, it's a song about the "ticking traps" that american people in this violent country fall into. A nightmare neoliberal-world where a person's main desire is a never ending escape from the suburbs. The suburbs can take many forms: from the boring, quiet life of suburbia to the pleasure seeking thrill ride of the big city. Ultimately, the suburbs offer nothing meaningful, and there is no escape within or between them.

However, in the first verse an outlet is available: "the far unlit unknown." This unknown exist within each person-the unique thoughts and feelings that make an individual; tragically, few venture very far into this territory. I'm also inclined to think that it's more about teens trying to breakaway from suburbia (and thier upper-middle class parents telling them HOW to think/beleive/be), only for some to discover (as Neil Peart writes) "

...Some will sell their dreams for small desires - Or lose the race to rats - Get caught in ticking traps "

Afterwards these suburb-raised, city-stressed folk "...start to dream of somewhere - To relax their restless flight - Somewhere out of a memory - Of lighted streets on quiet nights... "

I think it's more of a commentary on the seduction of city life and the potential trappings it brings. It is also a social commentary on how cliques are hurtful, and how expectations of comformity often drive away our best and brightest. Very much like the suburbs of Tennessee, Boston, Pennsylvania, New York and Chicago





Essentially, commodity fetishism is when people see the relations between people as relations between things. The value of things are seen as being determined by the market instead of being determined by the social relations that created them (labour time, etc).

You are right about alienation. Alienation is when you become alienated from something. During the labour process, this is usually the process itself and the things that you make. It's a common feature of wage-labour and helps to explain why people in more creative industries are highly regarded such as musicians or artists. Wage labour is when you sell your labour power to a capitalist, so you go in to work (which isn't yours), create things (that aren't yours) and you don't care because you're not making anything that you really need and have no input into it.

Of course, you can have both fetishisation and alienation of other things in life such as politics, religion, political parties, etc. It doesn't just stay within the scope of commodities. They're just one expression of social relations.