Russell Brand : Under the skin podcast- Marxism.

Guest speaker - David Harvey - Marxism thinker.

• Industrial capitalism - craft people in charge of there own production, but they were being pushed into factories - taken away from them.
• Capitalism is ' built on expansion and profit.'
• 'Appears to be something it is not.' 
• Large corporations have become the new capital in the 21st century. e.g. Apple , they have to produce things that don't last in order to develop and sell.
• Why is the theory of marxism still relevant today- 
• Environment , social inequality, want people develop a need for and desire.  
• Big corporations are creating needs that are not there. 
• Imperialism, colonialism , ideologies =  uneven geographical development. Commodities are made in different places. 
• Certain types of mentality - Where has the Morality gone ? but Marx never makes any moral argument. 
• Socialism - Marxism - communism. 
• MARXISM IS A WAY OF THINKING !! A WAY OF ANALYSING. - Helps to identify between the symptoms and the underlying problem. 

This discussion between Brand and Harvey is an interesting debate into weather Marx's theories and method of thinking still relevant today. The conclusion was that they are, but have altered vastly. This is obvious with the introduction new technological developments such as social media and jobs created by this. There is also the consideration that capitalism has grown, they kept referring to countries like Russia and North Korea. It was also mentioned that due to the increase capitalism is running out of space so is now taken the form in the mass corporations and the commodities they produce. As a result culture. The example of hip hop was used to describe the transition , so it started off as a definite act the moved into a utopian from then subsequently turned into product. I can see what they are getting at with this example but i'm struggling slightly with the utopian part of it. Dose this mean that it was used in a escapism form or that it suggested ideals which would help for the seek for the utopian society?  But in buying the commodities the companies produce is this now commodifying people ? 

The process of decommodification is a complicated, as suggested by the speakers , educations and health care would both have to go under reform. But by doing this it equals to socialism. A centralize state where the power is held but peoples imput is vital. 

- Social Media platforms being used for reform.

OCCUPY MOVMENT !!

- symbolic movment 

- changed discorse of inequality 

- the concept of the 1%. 

- Urban questions and movements.

- NEOLIBRALISM !!