Internal Economic Class Contradiction
Objects form a system of signs that shape identity and social meaning. Certain specific objects can be removed from their intended context without canceling meaning, while others cannot be removed from context without gross cancellation of meaning. In other words they become commodified, objects of exchange separate from intended use, and attached to unintended valuation, or meaning.
A tribal object is not intended for display as art, according to the definition of “tribal.” It's employment as art, decorative art, may be compared to the Marxist definition of surplus value as being assigned to objects, over-and-above their intrinsic material worth. Identity and lifestyle are some of the attributes attached to objects which were never intended to be used that way.
Objects of Choice
Exercise of free choice is not so much a difference of class, or of social caste, so much as the difference between feudal serf, tradesmen owning tools, landowner of property (and other such human groupings), but of the classification of things – inanimate objects – which are assigned levels of importance in human commerce and industry, as are raw materials, tools, technology, and so on, leading ultimately to supreme tokens of surplus value, such as art; among many others.
The contradiction then becomes one of an inverse analogy in which formerly opposed classes, where the capitalist is in conflict with the worker, divert to non-human interests resistant to subjugation. After Marx, for whom the contradiction was between classes, it transitions into conflict with, or about, objects of material value. It is now a within-class contradiction – competition – of competing needs, and for limited resources.
The inverse is in effect, making capitalists compete with one another for limited resources of labor, without which production is reduced -or grinds to a halt. Again, basic economics of supply-and-demand operate on the goals and compromises of all concerned. When Marx denies that history is instigated by ideas, he no doubt had the mindlessness of material incentives in mind.
Propaganda and Ideology
Commercial advertising is a specialist industry designated to establishing value where none exists, or the making known of what was hitherto unknown to the consumer. A good proof of the assertion is the well-worn truism that “sex sells.” Indeed, one of the main objects of advertising is to sexualize merchandise, thereby creating fetish value, which goes to establishing lifestyle consciousness drawing power from the authority of signs packed with apparent significance. Advertising may be seen as a system of signs as directions – literally traffic signs – pointing consumers towards the intended object of consumption.
If an individual desires to be looked-at, she will reach for what is dangled before her gaze, like the infant's prehensile grasp of a toy rattle. Competition for brand name caché is sharp, and sharp buyers are quick to assess the lifestyle value of various brands. The hyper-valuation of basic needs – such as shoes – drives competition within social classes to the conspicuous wearing of premium, brand name merchandise.
Competition for Status
A shocking example of this is seen in news reports of young people who are robbed of expensive, “designer” gym shoes –literally and physically taken from the victim wearing the shoes. It is a sad commentary on the human condition when an $18 department store pair of gym shoes, comparable in every functional way to the expensive designer fashion, would not attract the same criminal reaction as the high-price item.
It may even be supposed that the owner (and wearer) of the pricey merchandise came by it illegally, either by direct theft, or by taking advantage of an artificially distressed, low price for merchandise stolen by others. It is part of the trade in surplus value, that judgment may be exercised by those not qualified to judge, upon those not qualified to possess the stolen booty. All while the sales store simply takes inventory, writing-off the loss as “shortage,” and subtracted from legitimate sales totals.
A moral may be distilled from the dilemma that capital does not only extract surplus value from labor's labor, but from labor's purchasing power, resulting from value subtracted from wages earned by labor. It is that reward is secondary to possession, that a price is to be paid for every exchange of value-for-value, be it immediate payment in money exchanged, or by attrition through depreciation of value over time and the vicissitudes of ownership.