Tags: capitalism, class, education, inequality, marx/marxism, political economy, theory, american dream, comedy, false consciousness, ideology, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2005 Length: 3:15 Access: YouTube Summary: Trigger warning: In typical George Carlin style, this clip is full of expletives and vulgar sexual metaphors (although the language in the first 1:20 is OK). Here, Carlin emphasizes the gap between "the owners of this country" and the rest of us. Carlin states that the owners control the politicians by lobbying to get what they want, but they also control people through education and media. They keep the educational system just good enough to educate people to be obedient workers but keep it poor enough so that it does not teach people enough to be able to think for themselves. They use the media to tell people what to believe, what to buy, and what to think. Because people can vote, they suffer the illusion that they have "freedom of choice." Suffering from false consciousness, they support ideas that are against their own self interests; for example they accept the reduced pay, fewer benefits, and less social programs that the owners claim are in their interests. All the while, they remain powerless to the owners. This illustrates Marx's concept of ideology; Marx stated “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas." These ruling ideas, or ideologies, obscure the structural violence and exploitation used to keep oppressed groups in their place. The clip ends with the statement "it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it," emphasizing a fundamental ideology that legitimates social inequality and oppression. Submitted: Jack Pold and Delano Scott
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Tags: capitalism, class, inequality, marx/marxism, political economy, theory, exploitation, human trafficking, nike, sweatshop, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 3:43 Access: YouTube Summary: Marx argued that exploitation is a situation where capitalists extract surplus-value from the laborer, and do not therefore, pay the worker for the full value of their labor. The capitalist is able to do this because of their position of power over the worker, who must work for a wage in order to survive. For example, they can exploit workers by making them work longer than they are paid for. We see a contemporary (2008) example of exploitation in this video, created by undercover journalists for Australia's Channel 7 news team. Potential employees recruited in poor countries with promises of high-paying jobs were then trafficked into Myanmar, where they had their passports confiscated and were coerced into signing 3-year contracts in a language they didn’t understand. Unable to escape, they are paid $6/day to produce shoes that can cost $125 or more in industrialized nations. Workers are housed in sets of 350 a single dirty tin shed with one "trough" for bathing, only a few bathrooms--located directly adjacent to where they eat. The news clip also highlights the 2 faces of Nike: their "public face" of super-star athletes (e.g. Tiger Woods was paid $22 million/yr by Nike) and the "hidden misery" of workers that produce its products. Viewers can consider how Nike, which claims to be a socially responsible company, continues to exploit their workers. Is this situation unique to individual companies, or as Marx argues, is this a central component of capitalism? Can the viewer think of other corporations or industries where these practices are common? Submitted: Janine Siatkowski and Jon Weiss Carole Morrison explains modern chicken farming practices Tags: capitalism, food/agriculture, marx/marxism, organizations/occupations/work, theory, weber, alienation, assembly line, fordism, labor process, mass production, rationalization, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 4:47 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip is from Food Inc., a documentary illustrating how giant food corporations have taken control over the entire food production system "from seed to supermarket." The video shows how this rationalized system leads to the alienation and impoverishment of its workers, such as Carole Morrison (a Perdue chicken farmer). It illustrates all four dimensions of Marx's concept of alienation. First, Morrison is alienated from the production process because Perdue dictates how the chickens must be raised. Perdue requires that chicken farmers enter contracts with them, which require the farmers to upgrade their farms to dark, windowless facilities in order to raise the chickens faster and make them less resistant. Working for Perdue, Morrison is also alienated from her species-being because her creativity is being stifled, meaning she cannot raise the chicken in a natural environment. She may prefer allowing the chickens to see light or she may have a different method of ventilating the room than Perdue mandates. Perdue's practices also alienate Morrison from her product. When she's done raising the chickens, Perdue comes and takes them all away. Mrs. Morrison's labor only serves to benefit Perdue and she does not get to keep or benefit from the products she raises (i.e. produces). Finally, Morrison is alienated from her fellow workers. Even though there are many different farmers contracted by Perdue, they have no connection to each other and only care about following Perdue's commands. Morrison says that farmers are afraid to speak against Perdue because they might lose their contracts. If one farmer were to lose her contract with Perdue, it would be safe to say that the other farmers would either be indifferent or might not even know. This clip also illustrates Weber's notion of rationalization in that Perdue seeks to make the production of chickens increasingly efficient, calculable, predictable, and controllable (e.g. they make chicken coups dark because it makes the chickens more docile and easier to catch). However, there are many "irrationalities of rationality," including diseases, mistreatment of animals, and abuses against workers. Finally, the video notes that many workers that come to take the chickens are undocumented workers,and Perdue knows that they "aren't going to complain" about being subjected to diseases or unfair treatment. The worker's undocumented status makes them easier to control. Note that because of Morrison's participation in the documentary, her contract with Perdue was terminated. Submitted By: Reza Rahvarian and Alex Hong Tags: capitalism, class, education, inequality, marx/marxism, theory, privilege, social mobility, wealth, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2011 Length: 60:00 Access: YouTube: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5 (note: this video quality is poor and beginning with part 2, the audio and video are out of sync; more info at BBC) Summary: This BBC documentary discusses the structure and experiences of social mobility and social reproduction within Britain. As the BBC notes, "Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool of privileged, well-connected families. Getting a good degree matters more than ever and those from low income families can no longer easily work their way up from the bottom without the qualifications, contacts and social skills that their more fortunate counterparts make full use of." It discusses the role of rising inequality, (unpaid) internships, private schooling, social capital/networking, individual aspiration, the transmission of skills in middle-class households, cultural capital (although they do not use the term), the increasing competition for good jobs, and compares mobility in Britain to other countries. Submitted By: Paul Dean Robert Reich explains the problem with the economy Tags: capitalism, class, economic sociology, inequality, marx/marxism, class consciousness, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2011 Length: 2:38 Access: YouTube Summary: In less than 2 minutes and 15 seconds, Robert B. Reich explains the problem with the economy by "connecting the dots" and illustrating the bigger picture. He raises 6 basic economic points that students can easily follow. (1) While we have experienced a rapidly growing economy since 1980, wages have remained flat. (2) Rather than resulting in increased wages, these gains in the economy went to the super rich, which (3) allowed them to leverage more political power and thereby cut their own taxes. (4) With less tax revenue, the economy has experienced huge budget deficits, resulting in cuts to public services and the social safety net. (5) This has lead to fear and division among the middle class and, rather than collectively coming together to fight for better wages and policies, people are competing for individual scraps. (6) Without the purchasing power they had in the past, the middle class is unable to jumpstart the economy, resulting in an "anemic recovery." This short clip would be useful in a class lecture on the economy, income inequality, or a discussion about our country's policy approaches to economic booms and recessions. It might also be useful in a lecture on Marxism and class consciousness, for Reich argues that a lack of class consciousness among working people contributes to class divisions and ultimately an anemic recovery. For another clip on The Sociological Cinema that uses illustration techniques so that students can easily follow a complex argument, click here. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Barbara Ehrenreich Tags: capitalism, class, inequality, marx/marxism, organizations/occupations/work, theory, Ehrenreich, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2007 Length: 9:45 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip is an interview with journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, who discusses the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. In Ehrenreich's estimation, the US is "the most class divided of the industrial countries." The clip works well as a means of underscoring the concept of class inequality in the United States, and is particularly useful because Ehrenreich's conclusions are based on her own experiences as a person who attempted to survive on lower class wages. At six minutes, Moyer asks, "Don't people call you a Marxist?" and in fact the clip works well as a way of opening discussion about whether Marx's ideas of growing class inequality are being realized in the United States. Finally, the 10 minute clip is also a nice addition to classroom discussions dealing with the ideas in Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: capitalism, knowledge, marx/marxism, alienation, false consciousness, ideology, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2009 Length: 8:17 Access: BoingBoing: a Directory of Wonderful Things Summary: This clip is a cartoon produced by John Sutherland, which attempts to defend and promote the principles of capitalism against other economic philosophies. The clip exists as a good example of capitalist propaganda which depicts capitalism in very rosie terms, and notably fails to explore or explain the downsides of capitalism about which Karl Marx wrote. This eight-minute clip would work well as a means of exploring the Marxist notion of alienation. Namely, how would the cartoon be different if it took alienation seriously? I have also successively used the cartoon's overly optimistic depiction of capitalism as a means of beginning discussion about the idea of a false consciousness. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: commodification, globalization, marx/marxism, coffee, commodity fetishism, ethical consumption, fair trade, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2007 Length: 8:17 Access: YouTube Summary: This short video is made by a Sustainable Harvest, a large Fair Trade coffee importer. The video is a marketing piece for Fair Trade and what the company calls "Relationship Coffee." These are excellent concepts to juxtapose with Marx's concept of commodity fetishism, but this video is particularly helpful (in comparison to other videos I found) because it focuses on telling "the story behind the beans" as a means of showing consumers where their commodity came from, how it was produced, and building a relationship between coffee buyers and sellers. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: capitalism, marx/marxism, organizations/occupations/work, alienation, mass production, labor process, fordism, 06 to 10 mins Year: 1936 Length: 7:25 Access: YouTube Summary: This short excerpt (if using the entire film, begin it at 2:50 & end at 10:15) is an excellent illustration of Marx's concept of alienation (including alienation from the production process, the product, species-being, and fellow workers). First, Charlie Chaplin’s character is alienated from the production process. On the assembly line, he has no control over the speed of the assembly line, how it is arranged, or his role within it. His boss stands over him barking commands at him, probably telling him to speed up and work harder. This type of alienation is pushed even further when he is subject to the automatic "feeding machine” and Chaplin even loses control over the basic activity of eating. Second, we know that Chaplin will not be able to keep the products he produces; it is not even clear from the video what he is producing. Like any capitalist enterprise, these products will become the property of the capitalist and thus the worker is alienated from them. Third, Chaplin is alienated from his own species-being. Through interaction with the industrial machinery, he is interacting not with nature through any creative means, but in an incredibly boring and monotonous fashion. The mind-numbing work requires no creativity, which Marx believes to be an essential element of human nature. Finally, the workers are alienated from each other in this clip. They are made to function in isolation, needing to each do the single mundane task assigned to them by the owner. There is no cooperation or social element to their work. Through the automatic “feeding machine,” the capitalist seeks to “eliminate the lunch hour” and “increase production.” As a consequence, the lunch hour, which is normally a social time for the worker, is lost. When showing the video in class, I ask students to identify how Chaplin's character is alienated and how this relates to Marx's broader theory about capitalism and class. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: capitalism, class, corporations, globalization, government/the state, marx/marxism, political economy, capitalist, internal contradiction, labor, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 11:10 Access: GOOD Blog Summary: The GOOD Blog describes the video as "another of those fantastic RSAnimate videos from London's Royal Society for the Arts, the Marxist sociologist David Harvey explains how the 'internal contradictions of capital accumulation,' not human nature or faulty institutions, are the actual root cause of the recent financial collapse (along with a host of other economic crises)." The clip would work well in a class grappling with Marxism and the continuing relevance and application of Marxist theory. In my view, the clip is particularly useful when attempting to broaden the discussion to the way capitalism works on a global scale. The clip can be used in conjunction with Harvey's new book, The Enigma of Capital: and the Crisis of Capitalism, and a fifteen minute audio interview he recently gave to Wisconsin Public Radio about the causes of the financial crises. Harvey's argument dovetails nicely with Mark Blyth's argument about class politics and the true meaning of "austerity," which is also posted on The Sociological Cinema. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
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