Social Structures
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
The film offers what would seem to be a definitive answer to the raging debate between which molds character: nature or nurture, genetics or upbringing. Smith's theory of self-interest still applies, "the drive of individual self-interest in an environment of similarly motivated individuals will result in competition; and competition will result in the provision of those goods that society wants, in the quantities that society desires, and at the prices society is prepared to pay. But one sharp image lingered at the end of the movie on the trading floor. Louis Winthorpe is a successful businessman in the stock world, quickly rising in the Duke & Duke firm, and set to marry the rich and pretty Penelope Witherspoon. It suggests that society shape a man to what he becomes, and that under the proper environment, any man can become studious, and ethical. The poor bum from the ghetto was black, the other a well-financed, high-class executive with his own limo and servant, was white. But still, the contemporary economic society still follows the rules described by 17th century economist Adam Smith. Of course, present day economic structure (such as one evident in Trading Places) is very different than those in the days of Karl Marx. That will lead business to invent, to innovate, and to create new things that on one else have thought up. The race issue plays a big part in the struggle of classes in America because of their heritage. The class structure evident in the movie seems permeable yet non-permeable at the same time. The prejudice against the colored is still evident today in schools, firms, and most of all minds of many men. Winthorpe, on the other hand, went from a wealthy, respectable man to an alcoholic deranged potential criminal. But during Marx and Smith's world the classes were largely divided into the haves and the have-nots.
Common topics in this essay:
Billy Valentine,
Adam Smith,
Marx Society,
,
Communist Manifesto,
Valentine Winthorpe,
Marx Smith's,
Karl Marx,
Marx Marx,
Louis Winthorpe,
adam smith,
billy valentine,
movie trading,
class structures,
karl marx,
marx adam smith,
duke brothers,
structure evident,
struggle classes,
marx adam,
class trying,
karl marx adam,
|
Acceptance Essays
