"One of the central precepts of Marx’s historical materialism is that we have to eat in order to live, think, argue, raise children, fight, enjoy ourselves, or whatever. How basic wants and needs are fulfilled has varied historically and continues to vary geographically. It is by way of a study of daily life that we can begin upon the task of theory construction. For example, if I were to trace back where my dinner came from, I would become aware of the myriads of people involved in putting even the simplest of meals upon the table. Yet I can consume my repast without having to know anything about them. Their conditions of life and labor, their joys, discontents and aspirations remain hidden from me. This masking arises because our social relations with those who contribute to our daily sustenance are hidden behind the exchange of things in the market place. Marx calls this the masking effect of market exchange “the fetishism of commodities.” We cannot use only the experience of shopping in the supermarket as a way to understand how daily life is reproduced. There is no trace of exploitation upon the lettuce, no taste of apartheid in the fruit from South Africa. We have to get behind the surface appearances, unmask the fetishism of commodities in the market place and build a general theory of how commodities are produced, traded and consumed in order to better appreciate the technical conditions and social relations which put our daily bread on the table."
David Harvey, The Urban Experience (via effusionofbiopower)
This is the most concise definition of the fetishism of the commodity I’ve ever read. I love David Harvey.
(via rumagin)
