Karl Marx has this theory of social alienation that proposes idea that in a capitalist system-much like the 24-hour consumer fest we Americans find ourselves bogged down in-the lower rungs of the class-war ladder are pressured into conformity by those who own the means of production and that's why we work shitty jobs, put up with bullshit labor requirements and grin and bare the monotonous taste of coffee and ever-increasing weight of the daily grind.
In a pure (I cannot stress that word enough) Marxian society however, the owners of capital no longer make the rules because they no longer own the capital. How sweet it is to imagine a world where we don't have to work mostly to make our bosses rich, where social classes are eradicated and everyone pushes happily towards equal contribution and equal redistribution of wealth. Or perhaps more importantly, imagine a world without NO TREPASSING signs; a world where all the factory walls and subway tunnels are suddenly public domain, free to use or draw on as anyone sees fit.
Because the more I sit around my apartment and ponder the issue the more I realize Wu Tang said it best when they told us that: "Cash Rules Everything Around Me". We live in a consumer culture, bound by an insatiable need to turn every product, marketable skill or good idea into a commodity. But if the bourgeoisie can't figure out a cost-effective way to mass produce it, society blocks that shit like an angry Ben Wallace.
