THETHEORY OF MARXISM

I was introduced to Marxism during my Fashion Futures module where I sought a comparison and reciprocation of the Marxism theory and its relevance to civilisation today. I still stand by this and wanted to navigate this theory further to show a full proof representation of the society Generation Alpha are currently living in and why they could seek rebellion from their surroundings in the near future.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had a similar perspective to Charles Murray and referred to the ‘Underclass’ in their philosophy as the Lumpenproletariat or “social scum”, a class of dropouts from the capitalist stratification system (Kornblum, 2013). Murray, Marx, and Engels were all conservative and sustained very strong viewpoints, culminating the concept that society was, and still is, feeding into a mass machine of bourgeoisie.

The bourgeois acts as the ruling class of capitalists who own the means of production and exploit the proletariat to maximise their profits and wealth.

Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, favouring socialism and arguing of the inequalities in civilisation which are segregating people based on social class differences. He concluded with the opinion that if society was to improve, it’d need a large-scale change. Nonetheless, he predicted that this was unlikely to happen, and instead, foretold the proletariat would engage in a revolution to overthrow capitalism and establish their own communist estate where there would be greater equality, fairness, and freedom.

I believe this part of his theory is massively relatable. The UK is presently the epitome of a capitalist nation, with the majority of its production owned by mass businesses or privately owned institutions. Within these environments, the working class are made to endure harsh human activity and relentless hours by these seemingly impersonal forces (Cox, 1998) and are often led to a feeling of alienation, which is drawn up within a separate theory coined by Karl Marx. Personally, I believe Generation Alpha will refuse to be relegated by such status as my primary research revealed the youth’s predilection for care and personal connections, and they will seek this from their employers and want to be treated as humans first and not objects.

Linking my acquired knowledge from primary research with that of the previous module too, Generation Alpha are already feeling the pressures of a capitalist nation as well as its economic, social, and environmental problems, at such a young age. Karl Marx showed, how although aspects of the society we live in appear natural and independent of us, they are the results of past human actions (Cox, 1998). It brings me to agree with Marx’s theory to some extent as Generation Alpha are ultimately paying for the mistakes their predecessors have made, as aforementioned. Thus, pushing a notion of rebellion or rebellious actions being succumbed to in the future by younger cohorts.