Please read the short essay, or just click the answers to these simple questions. You may need to *enable popups.
Please click on the statement that might reflect a wealthy employer's belief:
* Everyone deserves to be treated fairly
* Hard work is the best medicine for whatever illness people may have
* Democracy is a really good way to get things done
* Other people are as deserving as we are
Please click on the statement that might reflect a low-wage workers' belief:
* Democracy is a really good way to get things done
* The best people always get the best deal
* Health and safety aren't important for most people
* Some people are just better than everybody else
*If popups don't work when you click on the answers, you will probably get a yellow line across the top of your screen. Click on it and choose "temporarily enable popups."
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Why do people think what they think? |
A materialist view leads directly to the realization that people's material standing, their economic standing, is their primary source of motivation. From there, one can begin to understand the complicated developments of history and the present. From an idealistic (non-material) framework, only confusion can result.
Marxists know that our material circumstances are the basis of our thinking. In fact, it's easy to think of examples of people whose point of view changed dramatically after their situation changed. Consider, for example, a worker in a shop who is suddenly promoted to management. Although he often tells his former friends that he is still their pal, his loyalty has been transferred to management's side. His former friends soon learn to stop trusting him, and they may joke that his new necktie and white shirt are choking off the blood to his brain.
The bosses may honestly believe that low wages are good for workers. The workers honestly believe that low wages are bad for workers. The bosses tend to believe that unions are bad; the workers tend to believe that they are good. Their situation determines their point of view.
Stories abound about people who suddenly learn humility after their fall from power. Former aristocrats claim new insights after they have been poor for a while. When the foreman is transferred back to ordinary shop work, his point of view changes as well.
While "being determines consciousness" is a reliable rule in general, it should not be rigidly applied. Individuals may hold contradictory thoughts and opinions. When we are considered in general terms, though, our situations dominate our point of view.
It is important to grasp this fundamental materialist fact, because it is the basis of understanding class society.
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