Marx also used it to describe ideas he considered to be representative of the interests of that class, even if those propounding the ideas were not strictly members of the petty bourgeoisie ;
18th Brumaire: The peculiar character of social-democracy is epitomized in the fact that democratic-republican institutions are demanded as a means, not of doing away with two extremes, capital and wage labor, but of weakening their antagonism and transforming it into harmony. However different the means proposed for the attainment of this end may be, however much it may be trimmed with more or less revolutionary notions, the content remains the same. This content is the transformation of society in a democratic way, but a transformation within the bounds of the petty bourgeoisie. Only one must not get the narrow-minded notion that the petty bourgeoisie, on principle, wishes to enforce an egoistic class interest. Rather, it believes that the special conditions of its emancipation are the general conditions within whose frame alone modern society can be saved and the class struggle avoided. Just as little must one imagine that the democratic representatives are indeed all shopkeepers or enthusiastic champions of shopkeepers. According to their education and their individual position they may be as far apart as heaven and earth. What makes them representatives of the petty bourgeoisie is the fact that in their minds they do not get beyond the limits which the latter do not get beyond in life, that they are consequently driven, theoretically, to the same problems and solutions to which material interest and social position drive the latter practically. This is, in general, the relationship between the political and literary representatives of a class and the class they represent. > On Sep 26, 2020, at 1:12 PM, John A Imani <[email protected]> wrote: > > Louis Proyect, in his review of “The Sinking Middle Class > <https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-sinking-middle-class/>", cited its > author Dan Roedigger: > “...as important as it is to recognize that teachers, nurses, and millions of > less adequately paid office and sales workers are key elements of the US > working class, contradictions of everyday life won’t let us rest there What > are we to do with a teacher, or nurse, or sanitation worker, or meatpacker > from Green Bay who becomes a labor activist while professing to still (or > also) be middle class? Must she pick? Should labor scholars decide for her? > These questions are especially vexed because the working class is largely > defined by a relation to capital and management, while the middle class > includes a variety of such relationships and often turns significantly on > personal choice.” > So the former is an economic category while the latter is a 'state of mind'. > Agree. 'Middle class' is a myth of mind perpetrated upon and perpetuated in > us to divide us, as the working class, from ourselves. > The determinant(s) of one's class is(are) the element(s) of the value of the > commodity that that one brings to the market. The commodity that we as > workers sell on the market is our ability to labor, our labor-power, > designated in Marxian economics as v. So long as the element of the value of > the commodity that members of the asserted 'middle class' sell on the market > is limited to their ability to labor v then they are 'working class', matters > not how 'well-paid' they are. So long as they can just as well be fired as > hired then they are working class, all other such self-flatteries, all other > feigned pretensions aside. > Comrade Proyect then cited Marx: > "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the > class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its > ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material > production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of > mental production... > Can I give a good non-Christian "Amen". > Such confusion of sociological descriptors with economic categories also > infects the usage of the term 'petit-bourgeoisie'. All too oft used as a > castigation, it is an "I will know it when I see it" type of proposition, > hurled as an aspersion upon those in certain professions, e.g. teachers. Or > those perceived as affecting a certain lifestyle. As above, 'states of mind'. > But most peculiar is its usage amongst self-proclaimed-Marxists when Marx and > Engels are quite clear that petit-bourgeois is an economic category, > specifically, a class. A class whose elements of value of their commodity > offered on the market differs from the elements of value of the products of > other classes. An accounting of those elements of the petit-bourgeois' > commodity value would here take longer when this has gone on long enough. > But suffice it to say (by Marx and Engels): > > “Of course he (the capitalist) can, like his labourer, take to work himself, > participate directly in the process of production, but he is then only a > hybrid between capitalist and labourer, a ‘small master’.” Marx. " Capital > Vol 1. " https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch11.htm > <https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch11.htm> > “It now turns out that not every sum of money can be transformed into capital > — that a minimum exists: the cost price of a single labour-power and of the > necessary instruments of labour. In order to be able to live like a worker, > the capitalist would have to have two workers, with a rate of surplus-value > of 50 per cent, and yet save nothing. Even with eight, he is still a small > master.” Engels. “Synopsis of Capital” (Vol 1) Chap 3. Section 5. > https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/1868-syn/ch03.htm > <https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/1868-syn/ch03.htm> > JAI > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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