Sunday, September 16, 2007

post #4

"Individuals have always built on themselves, but naturally on themselves within their given historical conditions and relationships, not the 'pure' individual in the sense of the ideologists. But in the course of historical evolution, and precisely though the inevitable fact that within the division of labor social relationships take on an independent existence, there appears a division within the life of each individual, in so far as it is determined by some branch of labour and the condition of pertaining to it."

I think what he is trying to say is that we are all individuals, but that our individuality is built upon our "branch of labour". Basically your economic class will determine your individuality whether your the rich controlling poor (media), or whether your the proletarian being controlled by the bourgeois; your branch of labour will determine part of your individuality depending on your social class and what you choose to follow.

1 comment:

Jessica said...

When Marx writes that "individuals have always built on themselves...", he is obviously referring to building on one's social class or standing. He later continues saying that "labour social relationships" take on their own entity, but are inevitably the cause of each individual in a community to be characterized into a social ranking. In other simpler terms, your social ranking will be determined by the status of your labour, and vice versa.