Karl Marx Conflict Theory Essay

Marxism sociology theory

Karl Marx (1818-1883) is one of the 3 founding fathers of sociology with the others being Durkheim and Weber. Karl Marx’s main focus in sociology is the conflict theory. Karl Marx states 5 issues pertaining to capitalism which is modern work is alienated, modern work is insecure, pay gap in workers and capitalists are uneven, capitalism is very unstable, capitalism is bad for capitalists. All the issues mentioned by Marx decades ago are very still relevant in todays economy as they were in the 19th century.

Karl Marx started off in the beginning with the question of “what is it to be free?” because as humans our actions are very limited by our physical capabilities and societal expectation, as humans we can’t adapt

Which means we become disconnected from who we are in the jobs we do. Doing the jobs that people do to support whatever is going on in their life makes them “depressed spiritually and physically to the condition of a machine.” Karl Marx says; that in itself is an enemy against Karl Marx question “what is it to be free?” because if we are slaves to our job then are we really free? We become detached from ourselves which doesn’t allow workers to express themselves in their nature which leads to emotionally issues due to lack of emotionally expression. To make the best out of physically and emotionally suppressing jobs individuals do, Karl Marx says to “see themselves in the objects they created” which means use the objects as a positive outlet like creativity or artistic ability because it reminds us who we are at the end of the day and we share our personal qualities in the things we produce.

The next problem with capitalism Marx states is modern work is insecure. What Karl Marx means by that is workers also know as proletariat are expendable. They are expendable by whatever means the business wants to remove them either to cut funds, replace workers with cheaper labor, or outsourcing jobs. The reason it’s an issue is because it keeps the worker in a paranoid state of mind and a perpetual state of fear which is one of the most primitive human emotions. Typically, when people are in a constant state of fear

When he says capitalism is unstable he means that capitalism tends to have a general pattern of crisis going on for example like the great depression, or the 2008 stock market crash. The main reason for economic crises isn’t because there’s a shortage of goods but the complete opposite meaning we become so efficient at creating things with machinery that people are no longer needed which leads to unemployment and unemployment has a lack of money flow through the economy which causes a crash because factories are producing so much yet people aren’t buy as much as they’re