Analysis #4

Background:

       What differentiates man from the animals? Man produces his/her means of subsidence. And what type of man you are is based on how and what they produce; however, symbolically there is still an animalistic food chain amongst men. Divisions of labor, within production, dictate how far up the food chain you are. The ruling class: the bourgeois, rule the material force of society and simultaneously rule the intellectual force of society. Mortality, religion, metaphysics, ECT (ideology and their corresponding forms of consciousness) lack independence. Everything origionates from and is connected to man developing his/her material production and his/her material intercourse. I.E. Production alters man’s existence, their thinking and the product of their collective thinking. Everything then is said to be related to the history of class struggles.

Today’s class structure:

Industrial Millionaires/Modern Bourgeois: Made powerful by way of political developments, modern industry, and world-market. The bourgeois have gained exclusive political sway. The state solely serves the bourgeois interests. Relationships between men are based solely on self-interest. The bourgeois draw all nations into an industrial nation ideal and compel all nations to adopt their means of production.

Proletarians: Live only as long as they can find work and they find work only as long as their labor increases capital. They are a commodity and are vulnerable to market fluctuations. These days the proletarians have no charm or specialized labor, they are merely appendages of the industrial machine.

Analysis of cartoon:

                In order to keep the proletariat down the bourgeoisie fuel a dated ideal of the American dream: the idea that true men, real men, work their way from the bottom and in doing so will one day be part of the ruling class. In truth, it is impossibly hard to crash through such a glass ceiling. Through media, music, education, ECT the proletariat becomes enchanted with this concept and give faith to an idea of the middle class (a supposed middle ground pathway to the upper class). This idea lets laborers (even those whose labor does not create tangible goods) believe that to be a laborer is a good thing because it means they are working towards the American Dream. The cartoon illustrates this smoke and glass mirrors concept. A man walks by a window displaying a sign that reads “Gentleman must wear blue collars.” This cartoon implies that a man with a superior social position is one who works. The irony of this is that the traditional definition of a gentleman implied a well-mannered, charming, and man of means, who did not have to work. This irony is infused within the cartoon by the underlying belief that if one works hard enough they will one day be wealthy enough to not work. This social lie allows the proletariat to believe they are happy or to believe that they will one day be happy so that they do not become depressed by the fact that they are commodities.