The Movie, The Matrix, Written and Directed by the Wachowski Brothers is the Ultimate Marxist Metaphor

Marxism is often a philosophy only understood by advanced scholars and criticized by those that wrongfully dub it as being solely “communist. Marxism is a lot more than communism and socialism. The film Matewan takes place in the 1920s and Matrix which takes place in 2199 are two very different films that share similar ideas. The ideas range from class alienation, commodity fetishism, class consciousness as well as tactics used by the state to support capitalist exploitation and bourgeois hegemony.

However, what happens when the roles of the classes turn? This is Karl Marx predicts within his book The Communist Manifesto. The proletariats are the class considered to be the working class, right below the bourgeoise in terms of economic gain. Karl Marx discusses the number ratio between the two classes and discloses the fact that the proletariat outnumber the bourgeoise. Within the class is a sense of belonging, the bourgeoise live their lavish lives and have most of the say so when it comes to power. Most laws and regulations work in the favor of the bourgeoise class, while the working proletariat class is the class of struggle. This is where it ties into man’s self-alienation. Marx’s idea that the working man has alienated himself from humanity by becoming a machine of society, no longer being able to think for himself but rather only thinking of survival and mass production. By focusing on production for the bourgeoise, man is unable to relate to himself or others around him. He is alienated in the fact that he no longer belongs to a community but more so to a factory. This is beneficial to the bourgeoise because they would not have to fear the alliance of the workers against them if each worker felt isolated from one another. Karl Marx describes within his book the overview idea of the working man as a tool for production, a machine himself, isolated

Marxism is a critical perspective based off of the ideas of Karl Marx, with Marx’s most famous work being the Communist Manifesto. This book illustrates

One of the honors for ‘greatest theories’ in contemporary civilization has to be awarded to Marxism. Invented in late 19th century by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Marxism has had great influences on the development of modern society. Despite its eventual failure, Marxism once led to numerous revolutions that working classes raised against the ruling parties in different countries. Consequently, it paved the way for the erection of the Berlin Wall, the formation of the Warsaw Treaties—communist camp confronting NATO, and the establishment of a world super power, the Soviet Union at the dawn of this century. Even decades later, after all those Marxist milestones

However, the functionalist ideology that rewards enjoyed by the wealthy are acceptable due to their social importance does not thoroughly constitute the cause of economic inequality (Colomy 31). Karl Marx, a known proponent of the conflict theory, exemplifies the dilemma of economic inequality through the relationship of the the proletariat and the capitalists. The proletariat or the labour worker and the capitalists are involved in a revolving system of exploitation. The capitalist pays his worker less to produce a surplus (Marx 479). It is the lucrative profit that is obtained through the capitalist industry that fuels this vicious cycle of exploitation. The worker produces the

▪ Marxism – fundamentally anchored on the work of Karl Marx, Marxism is a dominant critical theory born in the middle of the 19th century and flourished tremendously throughout the twentieth century. Marxism identifies social and economic factors as crucial denominators of relationship in society. This short story has very strong social problems. The people of the Marxist time are afraid of new technologies

According to Karl Marx, a famous German philosopher, came up with the theory that the higher class, known as the bourgeoisie, enslaved and exploit the working class, known as proletariat. This theory relates to the two novels A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Legend by Marie Lu. There are many similarities that take place between these dystopian novels and it is evident that everything is predetermined and controlled by the state, causing conflict and chaos. This is demonstrated by the caste system, abuse of drugs and power within the government.

The movie, “The Matrix” is an outstanding example of the term “Marxism”. Simply put, Marxism is the political and economic theory of Marx, advocating abolition of private property, and state provision of work and subsistence for all, and to be a Marxist, is to follow Karl Marx’s theories. Along the lines of Marx’s theories; a reality and way of life in the Matrix is maintained, oppressed, discovered, and eventually explained. Marx advocates a violent change, and The Matrix demonstrates this type of propaganda. The character Trinity sets the tone from the very start with her defying antics, and Neo’s role is realized; as this reality that is the Matrix is explained. The Wachowski brothers’ film, The Matrix, easily lends itself to a Marxist

Every society is structured or designed with the intention to form social classes; classes that will determine the social mobility of each individual living within it. Within the social hierarchy, there is inevitably one class that essentially oppresses the others. The Communist Manifesto features The Bourgeoisie and The Proletarians, and explains that the relationship between the two classes is a common frictional relationship that has occurred countless times throughout history. It explains that the modern Bourgeoisie will eventually fall, due to their inability to maintain a lifestyle for the proletarians; which is ultimately caused by the instability of capitalism.

For example, it shapes the nature of religion, law, education, the state and so on. According to Marx, capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. For example, by polarising the classes, bringing the proletariat together in ever-increasing numbers, and driving down their wages, capitalism creates the conditions under which the working class can develop a consciousness (or awareness) of its own economic and political interests in opposition to those of its exploiters. As a result, the proletariat moves from merely being a class-in-itself (whose members share the same economic position) to becoming a class-foritself, whose members are class conscious – aware of the need to overthrow capitalism. The means of production would then be put in the hands of the state and run in the interests of everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. A new type of society – socialism developing into communism – would be created, which would be without exploitation, without classes and without class conflict. Marx’s work has been subjected to a number of criticisms. First, Marx’s predictions have not come true. Far from society becoming polarised and the working class becoming poorer, almost everyone in western societies enjoys a far higher standard of living than ever before. The collapse of so-called ‘communist’ regimes like the former Soviet Union, and growing private ownership and capitalist growth in China, cast some doubt on the viability of the practical implementation

Neo was now surrounded by people just like him who were searching for answers as to what the Matrix is. As they were sitting around the table, Mouse turns to Neo and says, "To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human." During the Agent Simulation Training with Morpheus, Neo follows his impulses and turns around to look at the woman in the red dress, Mouse's proud creation. Neo was only following his human instincts. Of course, Mouse's statement would only be true for all humans if we were actually allowed to have impulses. Winston Smith, in George Orwell's 1984, would certainly disagree with this notion of humans having impulses, and every one in Airstrip One, Oceania

The Marxist's perspective is dominantly based on economic factors and over emphasizes them; money is assumed to be everything within society and social life. In my view, something is clearly missing here such as values and other social factors. Assuming that money is everything within society leads to assumptions that those owning the productive and therefore economic resources are given the power and use it to control those without to maintain their hegemony. Further factors that can form and shape society like gender, ethnicity, age, culture etc. are not taken into consideration and neglected. Hence the Marxist perspective focuses on having versus not having, earning versus not earning and powerful versus powerless.

Conflict theory allows us to see the conflict between social life and capitalism. Marx saw the power struggle between classes and felt that it is wrong to ignore inequality. One of the biggest inequalities between the two classes was the alienation of the workers (Morrison, 2006). Only one class, the wealthy gains the full benefit of the labor. An example of this is a worker who builds something that they will never be able to afford. Because of this the worker loses control of their production. This is what conflict theory is, the power struggle between two

Marxism is shown is supported in Metropolis by showing the horrid results of what could have been prevented if Marxism had been used. Marxism is the theory that the working class deserves respect, because without them, nothing would be possible. It is essentially sympathy for the working class. Johann Frederson, the leader of

The philosophy of Karl Marx begins with the belief that humans are inherently cooperative with common characteristics and shared ends. To human beings, life is considered an object and therefore, humans make their “life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Tucker 76). In other words, humans are able to think, imagine, and “produce even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom” (p. 76). It exemplifies that idea that humans not only have the capability to create things for survival but express themselves in what they produce, within the standards of the human race or universally. When capitalist wage-labor enters the picture, it forces these shared ends and the freedom of expression in human production to cease, causing a rise of competitiveness among