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Karl Marx's Theory Of Commodity Fetishism

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Commodity fetishism refers to the transformation of human relations formed from the exchange of commodities in the market. Human relations form between people of trade in goods and services in the market expressed in terms of the objectified economic relations among currency. Commodity fetishism allows the ability to transform individuality, conceptual aspects of financially viable value into objective and real things that people think have intrinsic value. (Rubin, 1990,5)
Karl Marx states social relation between people assumes in their eyes to form a relation between things therefore commodity fetishism is religious due to the involvement of supernatural status to assume a belief in something not there. Humans use their brains to create commodities …show more content…

The emerging of object is completed as a commodity fetishism assigned a monetary value for equivalent universal exchange, fetishism means that consumers come to believe that the object has intrinsic value in and of itself. Object value appears to come from commodity rather than human labour produced. In the "Wings" lyrics Macklemore associates this process of commodity fetishism with athletic shoes, Nike Air Max as a child he believed that the shoes made him feel and think he was Michael Jordan the superstar athlete. the value of Nike shoes displaced from the labour time put into creating these shoes infused with an intrinsic value came into being a celebrity with endorsement deals and symbols of iconic Nike "Swoosh". Wings becomes a statement on how market capitalism seduces people to purchase the product promised. Macklemore comes to a realization in the song that "Nike tricked us all", before finally realising towards the end of the song that "its just another pair of shoe," He explores the darker side of consumption, urging listeners to critically rethink the messages imposed to us in capitalist societies that make us feel constantly consume the product. The video is used to teach and distinguish Marx's notion of use-value and exchange-value, as well as concept of surplus value which is profit earned by capitalist above and beyond use value required to make the product. Viewers are urged to identify the use exchange and surplus values of the Nike shoes in the video, like why are Nikes $180 and Sneakers are $20. In addition the video bolsters discussions of power of symbols and significations creating a cultural meaning embodied in commodity signs. Jacques Lacan's idea of signifier and signified

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