Marx and Street Performing

I have a friend who is a street performer from seattle currently residing in New Orleans. He is against the Capitalist system for very many of the same reasons Marx is. He believes that the capitalistic society demeans the individual because capitalism assumes that production is apart of a larger product not belonging to the individual. Street Performing is my friends way to create or produce for the sake of his own production and not for the demands of a greedy machine.

class synopsis back from 3/23

In today’s class we began our discussion on Karl Marx. He is a materialist, and against the idealistic philosophy. He ultimately sees the world as a material process, as opposed to a “being” or “becoming” sort of existence; similarly, he sees history as a continual process of production and labor between individuals.

Marx sees the self as a natural, corporeal, sensual, objective being. Like his conception of the world, and its historical account, he views the human not as having an essence, but rather it creates itself through production and creation. We have no teleology or principle to history. The self is conditioned by its relation with external objects, namely, the products of his or her labor.

Humans are essentially producers. Therefore, we master nature in order to meet our needs, which are primarily material. We produce commodities to be consumed; first the basic, and then commodities of the imagination. In order to do this more efficiently, we create divisions of labor. Marx spoke against the capitalistic society of his time, and how the divisions of labor were no longer natural as they should be, but imposed on persons for the sake of exchange rather than self-production. The capitalist society promoted that the “free laborer” sells labor to capitalists for “equal” exchange value to meet basic needs—but then leaves profit for the capitalist. In his eyes, the social view of “freedom” had instead become “freedom from the means of production,” and freedom to sell one’s own labor power, leaving a wide divide between the capitalist and the laborers—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The modern state only managed the affairs of the bourgeoisie, who dominated production and alienated the proletariat from owning the process of production and the product itself, while allowing the proletariat subject to this “false freedom,” thinking that they are capitalists. Amidst his perspective of the modern state, his idea of socialism emerged.

Doubt

It's funny to think that if one has doubt in their religion that it affirms their faith. Normally I feel that if someone were to have doubt or uncertainty in their religious beliefs that it would call into question how faithful that person truly is. This idea of a "Leap of Faith" makes sense though. By understanding the "risks" and being uncertain you are able to take the gamble and make the leap.

Every time I hear the phrase Leap of Faith, I always think of Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. First off, that was an excellent, excellent movie. Toward the end the scene where Indy has to go get the Cup of Christ in order to save his father and pass the three tests of the faithful man are an exact representation of this philosophy. The Breath of God test, The Word of God test, and the Leap of Faith test were all representations of this philosophy. Granted they might be a little over the top but still really cool none the less. I think that Spielberg did a great job with that movie and had some truly brilliant ideas when directing that movie.

Religious Stage

I think that the religious stage is the most fascinating. What caught my attention was the statement made in class that you can not truly be in the religious stage unless you question it. Having a leap a faith is the most important way of living. I always thought that if I had doubts, I would not be considered really religious. Now I know for faith to be true one must doubt.

Religious extremist are not religious

This week I watched a documentary about a Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem who ended up killing another girl who was born on the exact same day and also looked nearly identical to her killer. While watching the documentary I kept thinking back to how Soren Kierkegaard would have said that extremists were not actually religious but were in fact ethical. A lot of what goes on in the nation formerly known as Palestine is done in the name of religion but doesn't seem religious at all. The supporters of the Israeli occupation expel Palestinians from their homes not because their religion is not tolerant but instead because they choose not to be.

3 Stages

In class this weekwee discussed kierkegaard and his 3 stages of life, the aesthetic, the religious, and the ethical. Because of this i found myself thinking about which stage of life I was in. I kept second guessing myself on what stage I thought I was in. I know I'm not in the religious stage, and I don't think I have enough life experience to claim I'm in the ethical stage. So that leaves the aesthetic, but I don't want to be that stage, it just seems unappetizing to me. But that seems to be where I fall. In the end I really don't know what stage I am in, and don't think it really matters that much in the long run but its fun to think about it.

Beyond a stage to a story

A previous blog titled "The three Stages" posed the question: Is it possible to have qualities from all three or does a person have to be in one stage exclusively?" I believe it is a constant struggle that we as humans are trying to weigh out in their lives. It seems as though it would be rather easy to be in the aesthetic stage. It doesn't take much thought to live in the moment and look after ones need, not caring much about the people around us. But it is in my own opinion that as a human race we know instinctively that there is more to life than just looking after ones own desires. As we get older and more mature we begin to struggle finding ourselves leaning towards the ethical stage, and eventually we may even find ourselves in the religious. We are always looking for more meaning in life, and these latter stages help us discover and learn about what our time on this earth can truly mean. The aesthetic stage doesn't provide much depth in a life, so we are always struggling with filling our own desires and being part of a bigger story. So yes I do think we can have qualities from different stages as we continue to discover more about the life we are meant to live.