Michelle & Marx

Ruis’ Marx For Beginners gives a simplistic but cohesive summary of the history and concepts of Karl Marx.  Ridiculing capitalistic society and its exploitation of the lower class “productive forces”, this German revolutionary theorist directly and indirectly impacted many cultures. Culture, which is not inherited, but learned through the vehicle of language, is a key component in the development of a society. Through this language a society develops a culture of it’s own thus creating unique individual perspectives that can fuel art and philosophy.To Marx, the development of culture in turn is dependent on the development of  “the productive forces”. This term refers to the proletariat who must sell his work to the bourgeoisie for much less than he is actually worth. According to Marx, this subjugation creates a society where art, science, and the government become the monopoly of a few. This minority will use and abuse its powerful position in its own interest to the disadvantage of the lower working class. Marx proposes that societal change can only occur through economic shifts; therefore economics indirectly determine the creation of art and literature in a culture.

            The inspiration to produce art comes not only from personal conflict or introspection, but also from external sourcing. Noting this element, Ruis discusses the dialectical and contradictory nature of the relation of bourgeoisie to proletariat. This connection can be also applied to the relation art has to the development of productive forces. Schools of art have roots in antiquity, but have constantly changed. According to Marxist theory, these transformations reflect in great measure the processes of change in society that can be traced back to the modes of production and corresponding class relations. Art does not directly reflect the general development of society, but ideas and styles. These elements can survive in the minds of men long after the concrete socio-economic context from which they arose. With this having been said, is an artist a free individual of society? He or she lives in a society and is much as any other citizen influenced by its cultural development. Although an artist could create something purely for himself, art is a means of communication to others. The idea that the intellectual or the artist is "free" stems from a misunderstanding and a philosophical error. Ruis’ states that this so-called free will has never existed, except in idealist philosophy and religion.  An artist must partake in society to successfully communicate with his or her audience. This participation can be in the form of incorporating internal sources acknowledged by society or external sources within society itself. It is through this connection that art speaks to its viewers, and a factor that in which makes an artist forever bound to his or her culture.

            Marx stresses the impact an economy has on every aspect of a society, but how does this relate to art? Marxist theory proposes that the creation of class, more specifically, the bourgeois, through slavery and exploitation, is the real material basis upon which art, science and technology developed.  In a social system of hierarchy and capitalism, art becomes an outlet that the upper class controls directly and indirectly, whether it is monetary or socially based. Marx also discusses the importance of a proletariat revolution in order to achieve change. Does this mean that in a capitalistic society like America, artists will continue to repeat the same forms of work because their society has not changed and lacks the impetus to do so?