Marxist Theory: Alienation, Materialism, and Class Struggle
Ideology: Enthusiasm and Scientific Knowledge
According to Marx, all human beings have an ideology, which is based on ideas or representations, true or false, of the society in which they live. If the ideology is based on perceptions and experiences that are partial or distorted from reality, and not on scientific activity, it will be shaped by false representations. Consequently, the reality and the conditions under which men develop are, in time, falsified. In that case, although these ideas imagine consciousness as equipped with its own substantivity, human existence is alienated.
Theory and Practice
Speaking of alienation, Marx points out that humans, whose activity is aimed at nature, create a world where nature is their work. However, under the capitalist mode of production, that activity is not allowed to be master of itself or what it produces. Then the man, having no objects created as a person, is denied. As a result, human beings are dehumanized by submitting to unjust social relations, where they operate as machines. To overcome this, it is necessary to study the mode of production that allows this situation by developing a theory that, once put into practice (praxis), permits transformation.
Dialectic and Historical Materialism
The possibility of shedding light on a new society involves conceiving social reality as a dialectical process, dynamic, occurring both in nature and in history. It also involves a materialist conception of history, where the crucial factor is the productive activity of man to satisfy their basic needs. Marx thought that historical materialism is a science of social reality that can transform the world. Accordingly, the modes of production are the result of the economic transformations that determine changes in the structures of society.
Dynamics of Historical Processes
These components will be social, political, etc.
The superstructure, culture, depends on the economic infrastructure, in which two elements are distinguished: forces of production and relations of production. The economic infrastructure conditions the entire process of production. The superstructure consists of legal and political structures that are determined by the infrastructure, as shown below:
- The economic structure of society constitutes its mode of production, which is the relationship established between the forces of production and the relations of production.
- As the productive forces are not static but are modified, modes of production are not stable, and vary with the relations of production.
- If these do not change as necessary, there is a contradiction in the economic structure of society.
- The result is social revolution, which transforms the relations of production, changing the superstructure.
Changes in political and legal consciousness, etc., are produced depending on economic transformations, as the pace of transformation is faster if the productive forces and human needs increase.
End of History
The aim of all this is the disappearance of classes and the establishment of communism. The way this society will be able to be established is through the class struggle of the proletariat, which means that the proletariat must realize that its interests are contrary to those of the capitalists, and use historical materialism to end their alienation. The first step is the suppression of private property, the means of production, and the division of labor through the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Thus, a classless society is reached. In this society, the state, which is the instrument that the dominant class uses to maintain its privileges, will not be necessary, nor will there be a class struggle, because classes will not exist. Then, a society of free and equal individuals will appear.