| This question <89|106> overall <89|91> Steelwool: <517|169-3>. |
| Question 186: Bring examples of people trying to use the social powers of the objects they are handling for their benefit. Are these attempts successful in the examples you bring, and if not, why not? |
| [90] Steelwool: Social Powers of Commodities People use cars everyday to exclaim to the world their social status. One may begin the search for a new car by listing out the needs and desires they have in a car; reliability, wheels, engine, CD-player, air conditioning, etc... there are both needs and wants. A great many cars will fulfill all of these requirements, but there is a property in all cars that everyone knowingly or unknowingly considers. This property has nothing to do with the labor value, or raw material value of the car. This property is specific to each car, and as Marx states “sticks to the products of labor as soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable”. This property is the social powers that each car embodies. When making the decision about the vehicle to purchase one knowingly or unknowingly is predisposed to select a vehicle based on the social power they feel that they will gain by driving that car. Now that doesn't mean everyone will purchase the same car, or even purchase the most expensive car, but they will purchase the one they perceive will deliver the most social power. |
| For example, lets suppose that in my neighborhood Toyota's are the cars that I have seen the people I consider the upper-class driving. As I look for cars I am strongly predisposed to purchasing a Toyota, even if there is a Volkswagen that fits all of my needs exactly as the Toyota does. Even if the materials used to build the VW were far better than those used to build the Toyota, I will lean towards the Toyota, and almost assuredly end up purchasing the Toyota. |
| Now as I drive the Toyota, I may feel as though my social status has increased, but in actuality it has not. I am blind to the fact that I drive an inferior car (comparable to the VW in this analogy), and may have in fact gone into debt further to purchase this vehicle based on its social properties. These facts show that I am merely perpetuating the Toyota's image in my neighborhood and as Hans states, in essence unknowingly “become the blind executor of social laws”. The car has “used” me to continue in trying to be the car of choice. Capitalism has “used” me because I have spent beyond my means and have infused more money into the economy than there really is. |
| Hans: I wish you had acknowledged that CSM discussed this very same example in [87]. |
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