Private Ownership In The Movie Antz

Private ownership is the final foundation of a capitalist society. The economy can be controlled privately or socially, however capitalism is specifically about private control. Marx often discusses the idea of society being split up into two different percentages, the one percent versus the ninety-nine percent. The one percent represents the elites or bourgeoisie of society and the ninety-nine percent represents the workers or the proletariat. All of the natural and economic resources are controlled by the one percent whereas the ninety-nine percent have no meaningful control over any part of the economy and therefore have no say about how society is run. The elites are responsible for all societal inequalities. There is a major power struggle

For instance, the entire movie Antz is a representation of private control. The elite control everything within the colony. The general controls the soldiers and workers and intrinsically owns the entire colony. The general and the monarchy are the one percent, and the workers and soldiers are considered the ninety-nine percent. The movie is a literal depiction of Marx’s idea of the one percent versus the ninety-nine percent. There is one general who has most, if not all of the control, and billions of ants that have to comply with the orders of the elite and own nothing for themselves (Darnell and Johnson 1998). Private control and ownership leads directly to private economic gain. Marx argues that the economy would be improved if everything was equally distributed amoung all members of

Essentially, the worker does not control what he or she produces because the capitalists control it to ensure an increase of profit. In Alienated Labour, Marx explains that, “this relationship is at the same time the relationship to the sensuous exterior world and to natural objects as to an alien and hostile world opposed to him”(McIntosh 1997:18). He argues that the workers feels alienated form their own work because they know that they will be unable to reap the benefits (McIntosh 1997). An example of product alienation is how Z understand that he is digging tunnels to increase the production of the colony however is alienated because he does not receive any personal benefits of his work. The general stands in front of the entire colony and says, “We are the hero’s. We are the ones ensuring our future for our great colony. And when we’ve completed this magnificent structure, we will reap the benefits. More food and less work for everyone!”(Darnell and Johnson 1998). This is promised by the elites however was never going to be provided. The general made this promise to ensure that the workers stay alienated from their work. Workers need to be blind to the fact that they are not receiving the benefits or else a revolution may occur and the alienation would be corrected (Misina 2015). Marx would argue that by correcting this type of alienation, capitalism would be