One of capitalism's greatest coups and
most resounding victories has been the successful combination of both
the master and slave mentalities within nearly every individual among
the working classes of the population. Under the current capitalist
system, each person has become their own master—has become their
own slave.
Under the old system, the slave was
made to work so that the master might have material abundance. The
master had ample time to enjoy this abundance, since s/he did not
have to spend her/his time working—that was the slaves' job. From
the capitalist perspective, this type of system presents a problem in
that the amount of goods the master and his/her household can consume
is relatively limited, even in the most opulent cases. Additionally,
resources devoted to the maintenance of slaves are unavailable for
use by the capitalist.
Were there more masters to purchase
goods from the capitalist, the slave system would not present such a
problem—but more masters would also require more slaves to serve
them which would, in turn, reduce the amount of resources available
to the capitalist and impede his/her ability to take advantage of
this larger market of masters. What to do?
The Capitalist system has solved this
problem quite elegantly, by replacing the external, interpersonal
master/slave division with an internal, intra-personal one. This has
had the result of increasing the number masters, who can purchase the
output of the capitalist process, without increasing the number of
slaves needed to sustain them, thus leaving resources plentiful and
inexpensive for capitalist exploitation.
While this solution has proven quite
useful for the capitalists, the effects on the working classes have
been less salubrious. Whereas, in the former system the master had
ample time to enjoy the material abundance provided by his/her
slaves, the new master/slave hybrid does not have the same luxury.
Being also his/her own slave, this new type of person is expected to
both work like a slave and to have material abundance, like a master.
The abundance is in vain, however, as being also a slave, he/she
lacks adequate time with which to enjoy the abundance that slavery
produces.
The result for the working-class
master/slave is an unquiet conscience. Whereas a mere slave knew
better than to seek fulfillment in material possessions, the
master/slave hybrid is imbued with no such wisdom. S/he has adopted
the value system of the master and so seeks fulfillment in material
wealth, but is unable to enjoy it due to the constant lashing of the
slave aspect of the self—to drive it to work harder to provide more
wealth for the master aspect. This disjointed self of the modern
working-class human, enmeshed in capitalist society, far from
representing an overcoming of the previous slave-based economy, is
rather the pinnacle of its ascendancy.
Under the old system, the slaves would
sometimes rebel against their masters, turning against their
overseers and disrupting the entire system of wealth extraction. The
new system is superior in this regard—at least from the point of
view of the capitalists—in that revolt against one's own self is
infinitely more difficult than rebellion against an external
authority. Thus, disruptions are kept to a minimum in the new system
of slavery, where every man is his own servant, every woman her own
oppressor.
