Marx

“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being but the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness.” (Marx)
This week we also touched on Marx.
Super Structure
Art
Culture
Politics
Production
Base

We saw Alec Baldwin’s monologue in the film Glengarry Glen Ross.
Going back to a post I had written about before the ideas in this monologue parallel to our readings of Baudrillard, The System of Objects. This also parallels the ideas of Self identity and social identity. Self identity is the verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotional identification with those self descriptions. Social identity is the expectation and opinions that others have on us.
Blake: You got leads. Mitch & Murray paid good money. Get their names to sell them. You can't close the leads you're given, you can't close shit, *you are* shit, hit the bricks pal, and beat it, 'cause you are going *out*.
Shelley Levene: The leads are weak.
Blake: "The leads are weak." The fucking leads are weak? You're weak. I've been in this business fifteen years...
Dave Moss: What's your name?
Blake: Fuck you. That's my name.
[Moss laughs]
Blake: You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. *That's* my name.
In this scene Blake, (Alic Baldwin) is explaining to the real estate agents how they have become nothing because they are not being successful in closing their leads. In attempt to motivate the salesman’s he explains that if “you can’t close shit, you are shit”. When one of the salesman asks for his name he mocks him by saying “you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. *That's* my name.”

The role of todays society has become very communistic.
We live in a world where " Cash rules everything around me"
Its a cynical world and we do in fact live in business of competitors.