“Had marxism not existed, ‘post-marxism’ would have had to invent it, so that “deconstructing” it once more would give the ‘deconstructionists’ something further to do.”
“The problem of ideology, therefore, concerns the ways in which ideas of different kinds grip the minds of masses, and thereby become a ‘material force.’”
The Problem of Ideology--Marxism without Guarantees, Stuart Hall
In the hallowed halls of the academy, debates have raged for generations about what Marxism can explain. Meanwhile, among assembly line workers and Amazon drivers, among meme pages and people who hate their jobs, the debate rages about what Marxism can do. When Stuart Hall and members of the New Left set out to define “post-marxism,” they wanted to fill in the gaps in Marx’s understanding of how social ideas arise. Today, exhausted by the crushing weight of existence under capitalism, members of the r/antiwork Reddit community enact new social ideals in a way that can only be termed Everyday Marxism.
Seemingly, most working class people are not on the same page, despite their common interests. There is little left to do in explaining why the Communist Manifesto failed to ignite the flame of socialist revolution and topple the bastions of capitalism. The answer is in the question. Capitalism sports a host of in-built defenses against revolution, including, but not limited to, surveillance, state violence, debt, and ideology. Post-marxism addresses the latter: post-marxist thinkers complicate the notion that ideology functions in a top-down manner, making important strides in how scholars approach “working-class thought.” They seek to recognize the multitude of ways working-class people have to think and act to navigate existence under capitalism. Disagreements are all too common among working class people, who are faced with the choice to resist or embrace capitalist existence
Recently, there has been a shift in the common sense approach to explaining why we are not all on the same page. If we want to meet people where they are, we have to recognize that we are all on a much more similar page than scholars assume when crafting their arguments. This shift reveals ways of thinking and acting under capitalism that I term “Everyday Marxism.” Traditional Marxism assumes that the failure of the working class to revolutionarily destabilize capitalism is the result of an entire class gripped by the ideology of the bourgeoisie. Post-Marxism, however, reveals that a working-class person’s existence under capitalism is characterized by market relations, which require them to continue being exploited.
In a society where Marxist ideology has been percolating in one form or another for generations, people today are more equipped than ever to understand the conditions of their exploitation. Everyday Marxism characterizes the manifestations of Marxist ideology in people bound by the interlocking systems of capitalism. This manifestation is stronger nowhere than in the community of r/antiwork. The concept of Everyday Marxism draws heavily on history scholars who champion the notion of “everyday resistance” in other contexts. Here, however, it is manifest in the actions taken by individuals to subvert the institution of work itself, and the adulation of their online peers when doing so. It is not uncommon in this community to see the spread of distinctly Marxist social ideals, but what is “everyday” about this formation is the agreement they have made between these ideals and work. Everyday Marxism is a way to negotiate living in a world where one must work to survive, and an existence where one understands work as exploitation.
This negotiation commonly takes the form of working as little as possible. Adherents of the anti-work philosophy might “steal” time from employers by lazing on the clock. They might encourage employees of an understaffed store to band together and close the establishment for themselves. They might trade tips on flexible work arrangements. Whatever they do, they do not embody the “capitalist” ideals that traditional Marxists argue one must to explain the continued existence of the working class. If we opt instead for a post-Marxist framework, calling in sick constitutes an act of Everyday Marxism.
Comments
Post a Comment