According to Karl Marx, what danger does society face due to commodity fetishism?
The correct answer and explanation is:
According to Karl Marx, society faces the danger of alienation and the distortion of social relations due to commodity fetishism. Commodity fetishism refers to the way in which social relationships and human labor are obscured by the relationships between commodities. In capitalist societies, people begin to treat commodities as if they have intrinsic value or power, separate from the labor and social relations that produced them. This transformation results in a fetishistic relationship with objects, where the social processes involved in their production are hidden.
Marx argues that under capitalism, commodities are not simply items for consumption but have a “mystical” quality due to the way they are exchanged and valued. For example, when an individual buys a product, they do not consider the labor that went into producing it, nor the social relations between the workers who made the product. Instead, the focus is on the product’s value as determined by the market. In this way, commodities are fetishized—they are treated as if their value is inherent, rather than a result of human labor.
This fetishism obscures the exploitation inherent in capitalism. Workers are alienated from the products of their labor, as they do not own what they produce and are disconnected from the labor process. Commodity fetishism contributes to the illusion that commodities exist independently of the conditions under which they are produced, leading people to focus on their exchange value rather than understanding the social and economic dynamics that shape them.
The danger of commodity fetishism is that it perpetuates the capitalist system by masking the real sources of wealth and inequality. By focusing on commodities as objects of desire or power, people fail to see the exploitation and social relationships that underpin capitalist production, thereby hindering any meaningful challenge to the system.