Social Structures essays

Social Structures essays The ideas and concepts presented in the movie Trading Places certainly dealt with the accessibility and inaccessibility of the superstructure of society. The separation of class, of race, and of gender greatly shaped and influenced human society for thousands of years. Only recently through numerous civil rights movements has the barriers of those social structures been broken. Still, traces of those thoughts and notions can still be found in various work places, schools, and even homes. It is important that we make a closer evaluation of those characteristics, and how they relate to the ideas and concepts of Karl Marx and Adam Smith, in the movie Trading Places. Every society is built on an economic base. Said Marx, Society is organized into class structures, aggregates of men who stand in some common relationship favorable or otherwise to the existing from of production. But conflicts always arrive between class between classes whose position is jeopardized and the classes whose position is enhanced. There is no example in history of a ruling class not trying to defend its class rule, or of an exploited class not trying to limit or eliminate the exploitation it suffers. Class struggle is a permanent feature of human society. In fact, Marx noted in the Communist Manifesto, that the history of humankind is the history of class struggles. It can extend to all fields of politics from foreign policy to educational problems and religious conflicts. In Trading Places, the conflicts obviously come between the class of the rich and powerful and the class of the poor and feeble. Of course, present day economic structure (such as one evident in Trading Places) is very different than those in the days of Karl Marx. It is way more complex with innovative technology and a global market. But still, the contemporary economic society still follows the rules described by 17th ...