Going Places: Capitalism Cartoon from 1948

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

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