The Naschmarkt in Wien is as good a place as any to study the national question. It feels as if all the people of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire are here, selling the accumulated debris of the centuries. Amidst the tacky kitsch are art-deco dinner services, relices of war, objects of Empire. Some of the peopleContinue reading “All Collected up at the Naschmarkt”
Category Archives: Consumerism
When Marx went to Morrisons…
…Hegel came too In the film The Million Pound Note Gregory Peck plays the character of the American sailor Henry Adams. He has been blown off course in his schooner, picked up in the Atlantic and ends up in London penniless. Two eccentric brothers, Oliver and Roderick Montpelier see him in the street (he isContinue reading “When Marx went to Morrisons…”
In the beginning was the commodity
The question is raised as to why Marx starts Capital with the ‘commodity’. It’s right there in the first line of the first chapter of the first volume: “The wealth of societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production appears in the form of an ‘enormous accumulation of commodities’ “. Why did Marx start withContinue reading “In the beginning was the commodity”
Capital, Consumerism & Christmas Lights
If we travelled sixty years back in time we would recognise that world. The fashions, music, films, motorism, typography and street life would be familiar to us. The surfaces of daily life would be familiar to us; even though within the capitalist mode of production there has been a great deal of change. Manufacturing hasContinue reading “Capital, Consumerism & Christmas Lights”
Commodity Fetishism 