Introduction
According to Marxist theory, commodity fetishism refers to the habit of thinking of commodities as intrinsically possessing a money-getting power like the way money is thought to intrinsically possess power to earn interest. In the same way, commodity fetishism means that a manufactured object (product) is more important than the people and offers special powers to those who posses it. A fetish is often characterized by an unusual devotion to a material object and as a result the object is turned into a an extreme desire.
The process of commodity fetishism
Marx’s theory explains that although commodities are regarded as simple things, they naturally possess some power which does not arise from the use value of the commodity itself. At the use level commodities only satisfy human material needs and therefore there is nothing special about them. When the commodity is introduced to a system exchange with other articles of value, then it acquires a mysterious nature, this only occurs in societies where people come to believe that value is inherent in the commodity. At this stage a commodity is able to take extraordinary power that is manifested in the people’s desire for the commodity and wishes to posses the object as well (Morrison, 2006 p. 99).
When people believe that the value of an object is a natural part of the object, they start to form social relations with the objects in their possession. These things include computers, jewelry, and cars. The relations are of greater intensity and often surpass the social relations people have towards other human beings. Later, the relations people form with objects they posses come to substitute the relations with other people and this leads to a situation where all social relations in the society are shaped by people’s social relation to things. Marx’s explanation is that people assign powers which are not real to commodities and this excites powerful desires and passions in people to have them.
Commodity fetishism at work
In the today’s society, the acquisition of commodities likes cell phones, computers, iPods, cars, particular brands of clothes and shoes have become very dominant and almost every one seems to have an intense desire to have them. It is common that nowadays people are basing their social relations based on their possessions. The mobile phone has now become a necessity for all who need to communicate constantly with friends and associates and some of my friends find it hard to leave the house without their mobile phones. The sheer variety of mobile phones has served to drive the fetish for hi-tech mobile phones with more and more people wanting a ‘better’ model that has the desired features like picture messaging, internet connectivity, data processing ,chatting.the mobile phone is now to be found almost every where, in the restaurants ,car parks, toilets ,school and at home(Ling, 2004,p.2-4).
Mobile phone subscriptions continue to surpass those for landline subscriptions.there are indications that the mobile telephone sector will continue to grow due to advances in technology. Manufacturers of mobile phones on the other hand continue to bring new models with new features into the market. This trend will in turn drive the fetishism of mobile phones a notch high in the coming years (Ling, 2004, p.6).
Conclusion
Commodity fetishism is a process that occurs when people assign unreal powers to a manufactured product because they believe the product gives them certain powers. This arouses a strong desire and passion to possess the particular object. People often develop strong social relations to the product and this relation at the end replaces the previous social relations people had towards fellow humans. People’s social relations then become based on the possession of certain products. The mobile is one of the product where fetishism is clearly evident ,advances in technology and the manufacture of new mobile hones with varying features is bound to drive the fetish for this product higher(Fischer, 2008, p.106-1089).
Reference
Fischer, J., 2008, Proper Islamic consumption: shopping among the Malays in modern Malaysia. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
Ling, R.S., 2004, The mobile connection: the cell phone’s impact on society.3rd ed. San Francisco, Morgan Kaufmann.
Morrison, K.,2006, Marx, Durkheim, Weber: formations of modern social thought.2nd ed. [E-book].California: SAGE.