Office Space and Marx’s Conflict theory Essay

Communism, as understood today, refers to a carcass associated with embodied professership of the meat of production, central sparing planning and rule of a bingle political party. Communism introductory all(prenominal)(prenominal)y means communal self-possession of property. Karl Marx was a German economist, philosopher and revolutionist whose writings form the radical of the body of ideas kn witness as Marxism. His theories ar the basis for modern communism. He had a lot of theories which made an impact on the world, namely the bout surmise, labor supposition of value, theory of historical materialism, theory of rent, monomania and more (Mandel, 1995).However, the primary focus of this root word pass on be the most canonic of his theories from which most of his other theories stem from, the encroach theory. Karl Marx was an advocate of the difference theory which stresses the refer between stratification and the on dismissal press among competing groups and c lasses oer a limited hang on of reward and resources. According to him, capitalist parliamentary law is torn by a perfective combat of involvement between capitalists and histrions.He cont stopping points that institutions such as the educational system and other forms of communication ar industrious by the capitalist class to parent a false consciousness among the broadcast (Mandel, 1995). These institutions seek to legitimize mixer discrepancy by propagating an ideology that says existing arrangements are right and reason fitting. They likewise foster the workers hope for upward societal mobility. As a result, workers are socialize in tradition and this contributes to passivity and compliance.In the Communist Manifesto, a forty summon booklet he produced with Freidrich Engels, he utilize the term communism to a nett stage of socialism in which all class differences would disappear and humankind would go bad in harmony (Karl Marx, 2002). Karl Marx believed tha t all of narrative has been a story of class conflict over material privilege and power. kindly customs and institutions are arranged to uphold class distinctions. Child-rearing practices vary by social class and affect the life chances of those macrocosm socialized.Children are treated divergently from different social classes, thereby perpetuating the dominion of cardinal social class over roughly other in a subtle and flop elan by subjecting children to it before they are old enough to know what is adventure to them (Mandel, 1995). One group, the exploiters, touchs to maintain its advantage over subordinate groups, the exploited. In a capitalist smart set, the struggle takes go down between those who own the means of production the capitalists or middle class, and those who care their labor the workers or proletariat.According to Karl Marx, the middle class maintain their position of domination by controlling the economic life of the population and even dictate the social measure of a received society. Just as the feudal system had given international to capitalist economy, so in time capitalism would give way to socialism. The struggle would end, tally to Marx, in the socialist revolution which was find in countries like China, Russia, and Vietnam and partly in the Philippines. The socialist revolution is a way for the achievement of full communism (Karl Marx, 2002).In his book Sociology and Anthropology, Dr. Epistacio Palispis mentioned how Marx saw the nation or state as an instrument of oppression, trust as a method of amusing and controlling the masses, and the family as a dodge of keeping wealth and education in the hands of the few. Marx was basically a materialist. He argued and pointed out that the populace, the proletariat is controlled by materials and lacks, and that their lives are centered in how they deal with these things.Because of the comprehend the essential role of material, he also theorized that material c onditions (the lack and the need for it, will be the core of class conflict. The divulge issue is how wealth is distributed among the mickle. The 1999 film stain distance, directed by Mike Judge, cook Ron Livingston and Jennifer Aniston, depicts the transparency of Marxs conflict theory even in ordinary unified life. The film is roundwhat ordinary employees of a fictional computer programming go with, Initech, going through their daily work and the complications they wager along the way.The main character of the movie, shaft gibbons, played by the actor Ron Livingston, finds himself pull his feet to work going through the selfsame(prenominal) routine of e rattlingday corporate life. He answers to eight different bosses who drone about TPS reports, coversheets, memos and the like. As a mere employee, he is subject to their authority. shaft of light and his fellow officemates Michael Bolton, Samir and Milton constitute the proletariat and his Porsche-driving, overbeari ng boss William Lumbergh (Gary Cole) represents the bourgeoisie of Marxs conflict theory.The hierarchy of offices represent in the film shows how society has exalt individual achievements and the pleasure of consumption that capitalism brings. The film shows how the employees comply blindly with the implike orders made by Lumbergh just because he is their boss. This situation substantiates Marxs claim that those who own and controlled the means of production were the oppressors and those who owned goose egg but their labor were the oppressed. One day, a team of experts is brought in to enact large layoffs.The character Michael Bolton, protests how he dedicated atomic number 23 solid years to the comp all, only to be one of those to be fired. Karl Marx in his excavate Theory of Value, emphasized that workers essential have the highest share of goods and subsidies as opposed to what happened in the film where an employee has little job security, a typical scenario in capitalis t economies. When this happened, Peter Gibbons gets discouraged and simply stops stressful and adopts an attitude of total disinterest.His only interest lies on putting in place a devilish scheme for some corporate payback, along with his office pals as his accomplices. They hack the computer system of the company and programmed it to place a fraction of every daily money transaction into their person-to-person bank accounts, which will eventually smokestack up to huge sums of easy money. This shot in the movie demonstrates Marxs arbitrariness that the conflicting interests of the two groups of classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, would inescapably lead the oppressed to overthrow their oppressors.Although Gibbons scheme did not go concord to plan, the company Initech still met its end from another employee, Milton, who set the building on fire as a furcate of revenge when the company stopped grownup him his paychecks as a way to hold up him voluntarily resign from his post. In a way, Karl Marxs conflict theory affiliate of explains why there is a need for competition. His idea about communal ownership of property, in others words, perfect equality, is obviously un originalistic. It is besides good in theory, perfect for Utopian idealism but in real life, one cannot simply live in perfect equality.If there was equality in everything, stack would lose their motivation to strive for something better, to make room for improvement. It is human temperament to be insatiable. If we take away peoples motivation, mediocrity will peck in all aspects of life (Communism, 2002). in that location is also the issue of equity. In the movie, some of those who were fired deserved to be laid off, while there were those who werent. Another very important issue pressed in an imperialist world is variation.Since social precondition and wealth scattering came up as a result of specialization, often inequality is justified when specialization is absent in a societys structure. Example, a person who took up a Ph. D would ultimately rank high and thence will have a higher income that a person who is simply a college graduate. Communism entails that wealth is distributed to each tally to need. In this kind of system, the basic economic needs of all people are satisfied. These needs include food, housing, medical care and education.Excessive material possessions and learning are not basic needs and are therefore not allowed to exits in this system. Communism therefore, to put it simply, is the eradication of any social standards and setting anyone at a default stage for the equal distribution of resources in order o revoke mass conflicts. Since people are mostly motivated by self-interest, most societies cull wealth to be distributed to each according to what is earned. People who live in this system become themselves the source of their own wealth.If they earn a great deal of money, then they will be able to acquire things beyon d their needs. If they earn little, they must do without. The paradox with communism in this side of the argument is that a society cannot control the interest of the people without elusion off their freedom and rights in certain aspects. Communism is only good when it ensures that the basic needs of the people are met and when it prevents rapacity from seeding in the hearts of the masses, since everything is controlled by a central planning agency. However, the major problem of communism, as well as in capitalism, is abuse of power.No matter how perfect an ideology is, there will evermore be an anomaly because the primary instigators of such ideologies are people. Human beings are abandoned to irrationalities including greed, selfishness and self-glory. History has taught us that too oft power in the hands of a few corrupts the minds of these leaders. Take the movie character, William Lumbergh, as an example. With his high profile status as the CEO of the company, he has bulli ed Milton to do as he pleases, leaving Milton no excerption but to comply out of care of losing his job.In conclusion, the movie Office Space exemplifies important points in Marxs conflict theory such as the act conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, as well as how group conflict is a basic ingredient of society. whole works Cited Communism. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge. 2002 Edition. Washington USA, 2002 Karl Marx. Microsoft Encarta 2002 (available in CD-ROM) Mandel, E. Karl Marx. planetary Viewpoint. 1995. <www. internationalviewpoint. org> Palispis, E. S. Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology. Manila Rex Publishing Inc. 2006.