1. MarxÆs views on economics, art and culture.
2. Flaws of capitalism (alienation, exploitation, coercion).
2. Mayhem liberation of proletariat.
1. Similarity of Project Mayhem and capitalism.
2. Applying abstract theories to reality.
1. JoeÆs initial hopes for change.
2. JoeÆs awareness of the limits of change and human existence.
Karl MarxÆs belief that economics shaped art and culture is taken to an extreme in the novel Fight Club. In Fight Club, we see that a materialistic art and culture have developed as the products of capitalist, corporate America. The narrator, Joe, is alienated, lonely and lost. He joins terminally ill support groups as a means of managing his insomnia. As he notes, ôThis was freedom. Losing all hope was freedomö (Palahniuk, 1996, 22). The society in which Joe exists and JoeÆs life exhibit major concepts in MarxÆs theories on capitalism, including: injustice, exploitation, coercion, alienation, and lack of self-realization.
MarxÆs views on capitalism basically render liberal rights and liberties void. For example, we are all free to vacation in Italy, but without the material means to act on that right it becomes empty. In MarxÆs view, capitalism based on private ownership of the means of production is unjust in this manner. Class conflict and scarcity result in society from the unfair nature of a capitalist economic system that alienates and exploits workers. When owners of the means of production extract exploit surplus they do not need and others do, it is exploitative of workers. Capitalism also prohibits individuals from self-realization. Marx believed wage labor was forced to work and only developed the potentials beneficial to the owners of the means of production. Therefore, eventually one is alienated from oneÆs social self that i
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