Capitalism and the birth of social stratification

Capitalism has been around since the 1800s. Yeah, it’s old. You’d think it would have died out by now or something, but it seems to be wanting to stick around. And why not? It’s worked well for us. Not like communism, with all its oppression and revolution inducing tendencies. How much drama can one ideology possibly create? We’re so much better off with capitalism.

Even though capitalism has worked for us, it still has its drawbacks, which don’t tend to come up naturally in conversation. This is why Karl Marx developed a theory to talk about it, called Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

Nah, not really. He called it Marxism.

Marxism recognized the vast yet overlooked gap between the working class and the ruling class, and allowed the analysis of the true impact of the Bourgeoisie (a word for the ruling class that needed to be as pretentious as them), on the labourers – or Proletariats.

The exploitation of the working class places a heavy burden on them, which results in something called ‘alienation’. Because workers have no control over their process of creation or production; essentially, becoming machines, they lose their sense of free will, power, and meaning. Imagine having to make a box – the same box – day after day after day, without knowing why, without choosing what kind of box to make, without getting to ever use the box for yourself, and finally, after a hard day of making boxes, you get paid with the scraps of the scraps of the material you used to make the box.

I would lose my sense of being, too, not to mention my sanity.

Marxism also believed that culture was dependent on the ruling class – that is, the ruling class used their position of being in control of materials and production to shape the ideas of society as a whole. What the Bourgeoisie want, society wants.

This belief led to the development of the theory of false consciousness – which although was never used by Marx, is closely associated with Marxism. False consciousness is the notion that the working class unconsciously choose to ignore their true position in society, and unwittingly alter their beliefs to align with those of the ruling class. It employs the use of justification to ignore inequality and oppression, and it promotes the idea of a natural societal hierarchy.

Marx theorised that ultimately, the inequality would reach such extents that it would cause the Proletariats to revolt against the Bourgeoisie and dismantle capitalism, resulting in a classless society. We aren’t there yet, however. We’re still stuck in the part where stratification of society is the norm, and a strict one at that. 

Social stratification refers to the division of people into layers or categories much like the layers of Earth that are arranged either above or below one another. There are two types of stratification that are prevalent amongst all countries i.e caste and class systems. Well, in India we follow the caste system which is known to be comparatively rigid and has strict rules; it pervades every aspect of our society and trickles into our daily interaction too. Caste system is primarily based on ascribed status (status assigned at birth) hence, a person’s position in the society cannot be changed. The term “caste” actually comes from a Portuguese word “casta” which means race or tribe; however, it is widely used in the Indian diaspora interchangeably with Jati and Varna.

Class system on the other hand believes in achieved status (acquired on the basis of merit) and a person can move up or down the classes depending on their economic and social standing since there are only three classes: upper, middle and lower. This system is prominent amongst the western countries like the USA and UK. It is believed that people from upper class have control over their lives as well as others, people from middle class have formal control over their lives while having little control over others’, however, people from lower class have little to no control over their own and others’ lives.

Now that we have established how these systems work and why do they work, let us talk about how they impact our society as a whole; like mentioned before, the Marxian philosophy stems from the thought process of the people belonging to “working or the lower class”, it emphasises on the disparities created by the unequal distribution of wealth and power in society. These theories surely look well on paper but what are the implications of it in real life? Do these differences really matter that much?

Let me tell you, they do. Research has found that differences in caste and class influence the entire worldview (perception of the world) of people for instance, people belonging to the lower class were seen to have a more collectivistic or contextualist approach to life whereas people belonging to the upper stratum of society were seen to have more of an individualistic or solipsistic cognitive framework. Just the difference in this ideology is enough to create tonnes of disparity amongst the classes.

In conclusion, we humans were meant to create and we did our job by creating the most distinct layers in society which we still put on a pedestal even after thousands of years. While a classless society would tip towards communism or dictatorship, a world with such rigid classes may eventually collapse too. Hence, in pursuit of developing a better community it is important to first acknowledge the problems caused by such disparities.

About the author:

1. Dev Ranade

Member of the Psycreative Column

First-year, B.Sc. Applied Psychology student, SDSOS, NMIMS.

Dev Ranade is an aspiring research psychologist who has been writing since a young age. He writes poetry, fantasy, horror, and blogs on topics of interest, such as social psychology, ethics and morality, and sharks. He is a student in his first year at NMIMS, residing in Mumbai, Maharashtra.   

2. Parishi Shah

Subhead, Psycreative column

Psychology committee, SDSOS, NMIMS

Parishi Shah is a first year student, currently pursuing her B.Sc in applied psychology from NMIMS. She is an aspiring psychologist who aims to also write a novel someday. She believes in the little moments that define your life and make it special. She loves reading, writing poetry and holds a special place for Sylvia Plath in her heart. She is diligent, hardworking and mostly altruistic. In the era of texts and tech she believes in honest conversations and letters. Her simple ideology is getting through one day at a time until she knows that she made it.