Marx, Materialism, and Exploitation Marx's Term Paper

Marx cries out that in Capitalism, "That culture... is, for the enormous majority, a mere training to act as a machine." It is this exploitation which persists today and which is far worse than the mere depression of living standards. Capitalism is intrinsically linked with consumerism, and both replace a sacred connection to one's vocation and one's art with a profane connection to one's paycheck and the throw-away products of factories and disconnected drone-workers. Materialism, itself, is the ultimate child of capitalism -- for only in a capitalistic society in which man was disconnected from the land and from the honor and joy of creation would any sane person suggest that wealth and finances were the most important aspects of life. Materialism as a flawed value is what created capitalism, and materialism as a philosophy of comprehending the world is necessary to comprehend its workings for it is, to a very large degree, the value of materialism which sustains capitalism and also threatens it. if/when capitalism fails to provide the proletariat with continued consumer comforts, then it would discover what Marx describes as the power of the proletariat, enraged by the loss of their luxury which had up until that moment distracted their attention from the exploitation of their humanity.Bibliography

Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." [electronic archive, no page numbers] http://www.indepthinfo.com/communist-manifesto/manifest.txt.....