One way the family serves capitalism is the socialisation of the young into the ruling class ideology. They see the family as an institution which serves and maintains the position of the ruling class. Marxists point out is that families socialise children in to an idea of hierarchy and inequality. An example of this is when parent’s power over children making them accustom to the idea that there is always someone above or better than them and they will have to obey there orders. This leads them to the working life where you work under capitalists and accept orders from superior employers.
Marxist believe the conventional families are the foundations of capitalism it does this in many way; Private property inheritance, Marxists believe that all functions of the family are performed purely for the benefit of the capitalist system. One of the key factors determining how our society plays in to the hands of capitalism is was who inherits Private property. Engles, Marx friend and supporter, argues that a monogamous nuclear family has become essential in society as men had to be certain of the parentage of their offspring to guarantee that their legitimate heir inherit from them. In Engels eyes this made for a ‘historical defeat for the female sex’ suggesting that woman were now under men’s control and just mere of object to provide offspring to become a heir to the inheritance. Marxist altercate that woman will never receive liberation from patriarchal control with the means of capitalism and private ownership nearby.
Marxism is a structuarlist ideology which means that they paying attention to social institutions and structures over individuals, and it was Karl Marxs (1945) who came up with it. The belief that society is divided into the bourgeoisie, who own the "means of production", and the proletariat, who do the work, also known as upper class and working class. The bourgeoisie or capitalist class exploit the workers, and arrange society to keep the workers down. Most of the profit from the work that the working class do is kept by the bourgeoisie. Now, when we know the definitions, we can look at the Marxism view of education.
Marx predicted that capitalism within a socioeconomic system would inevitably create internal tensions between social classes leading to its demise and replacement by a new system, communism. For Marx, the concept of class has always existed in society. Historically, a society has always been arranged into various orders of social rank. A defining characteristic of capitalism however, is that “it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848).
It’s beneficial as there are male and female role models available for the children, and it gives the parents more control of how their children are brought up. Another strength is that there’s less interference from wider family members however this can also be seen as a negative aspect, as other people are unaware of what’s happening and if there was any problems within the family and therefore it’s difficult to identify neglect. This also makes it difficult to seek professional help outside of the family. Another disadvantage of this privatised nuclear family is that children are only exposed to one set of values and so are influenced to become like their parents in the future as they have no exposure to other behaviours of different families. A criticism of this
INTRODUCTION Several outstanding philosophers such as Marx (1844), Kierkegaard (1941), Rousseau (1950), and Nietzsche (1954) paid serious attention to the notion of alienation. They strongly believed that alienation existed in the world and characterized it for us in such ways that we couldn't help but accept it as part of human reality. Marx was the most closely associated with and thus made the most contributions to the concept of alienation. According to Marx, alienation refers to the split between a human's existence (material) and essence (soul). Marx discusses alienation in a relatively restricted context-namely, the lives of wage workers in the early capitalist society.
Functionalists however argue that the hidden curriculum prepares younger generations for life in the work place, For example, we obey higher authority such as teachers, of which in the work place would be our employer. Unlike Marxists, Functionalists believe that social mobility is possible and education gives individuals the best chance to achieve their status. American Sociologist, Parsons believes that education is a secondary agent of socialisation, and the
Role of education Darcy Fletcher Functionalists believe education performs two contradictory functions , on one hand they believe that educations prepares children for their specialised role acquired to their skills and potential. So they can perform at the best they can at their role after education. On the contrary they believe society needs to share the same goals and outlook in order to co-operate. Functionalism is based on the view that society is a system of interdependant parts which is held together by value consensus. Durkheim argued that society has to feel a sense of social solidarity , he believes that without this form of social cohesion , society would be impossible because each person would pursue their own ‘ selfish’ desires.
Now people’s ideologies are influenced by the education system, which is now the main agency of control within society. People are now entitled to more choices and their acceptance comes from their experience of education. Althusser states people used to accept their position in society because they believed it to be ‘gods will’. This theory suggests that if individuals are going to accept inequality their ideologies need to be controlled and the only way to accomplish this is to become a teacher and to control the society through power. Education according to Althusser reproduces inequality by preparing pupils for work in the wider society.
The concept of a classless society has been elaborated by Karl Marx, the father of Marxist philosophy which is the basis of the Communist ideology. As a member of a contemporary society under a democracy, my beliefs are rooted on a society made up of different classes. In order to get to a higher class of society, one has to work with sweat, and even blood. This idea has caused many revolutions because some who do not want the present structure of society want it to be restructured to suit the need of every individual. This essay is an attempt to discuss a classless society and to establish whether a classless society is attainable and sustainable in this century.