And Godamn I wish knew more about ideology to make a cogent argument for it. Because while I’m not a Christian, I can’t help but notice how Jesus basically symbolizes most of what I believe as a socialist.

Really could be my autistic brain stretching some of the minute details, but think about it for a sec. You have two groups of people with a strong belief (sharing art and music with a group of likeminded people and giving praise to something you believe controls your life) and there are these fuckers in both cases selling shit and disturbing the realness of it all

Idk maybe I’m just a hater, but the two situations seem logically the same to me.

  • stigsbandit34z [they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    So, in a sense, Jesus noted commodity fetishism before Marx himself

    And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers."

    Honestly, like I said, I have a completely different perspective on the Bible as an art medium. Jesus really represents a lot of stuff we would consider socialist

    • ComradeRat [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Less Jesus and more biblical prophets / the bible generally. In his September 1843 letter to Arnold Ruge, he called religion a "register of the theoretical struggles of mankind"(MECW3 p143). He seems to have treated it throughout his life similarly to Adam Smith or Ricardo; i.e. as a theoretical work with tons of flaws but some useful ideas.

      The best example I can think of for commodity fetishism in the Bible is actually in Isaiah and Jeremaiah; as a condemnation of idol worship:

      Isaiah 2:7-8

      7 Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

      8 Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

      Jeremaiah 10:5

      5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.

      Compare to Marx in Capital

      Commodities cannot themselves go to market and perform exchanges in their own right. (Fowkes TL p178)

      Although invisible, the value of iron, linen and corn exists in these very articles: it is signified through their equality with gold, even though this relation with gold exists only in their heads, so to speak. The guardian of the commodities must therefore lend them his tongue(Fowkes TL p.189)