Marx and the Creative Means of Production

The capitalistic business owner treats the proletariat as an economic unit who is measured upon performance and bought and sold just like any other commodity. A good businessman in the capitalist system does not view people as people but only as units of labor and your value as a person is diminished. For someone who produces art as a source of income struggles with this loss of identity as well. Creative expression is traditionally thought of to be intimate and individual. In capitalism, the artist no longer creates organically, but has to depend on society and what calls the people’s interest. Those with financial power become a cultural gatekeeper by commissioning and providing livelihood for the poorer creative classes. Writers and artists alike are forced to cater to the tastes of the elite in order to live off their craft. Depressing...

However, the advent of mass communication and information has allowed the masses to create and judge creative content on a large bottom-up structure, and provide economic sustenance for artists that become popular. Within this framework, tastes and subcultures can spring up and allow more freedom of expression.