Not class consciousness, just consciousness || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Pilani, Goa (2022)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 18.07.2022,  BITS Pilani, Goa   Context:  ~ What is consciousness?  ~Is consciousness just physical?  ~ What is capitalism?  ~ How can one understand the Vedanta?  ~ What is class consciousness   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~   #acharyaprashant

Transcript

00:00I am an analyst of BITS Pilani campus and then I went on to do my MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

00:16So I have had an interest in economics and you have often said that one of the problems

00:22with us is that we don't understand certain terms but we use them very often.

00:26So capitalism is one such term.

00:28So recently I read Das Capital, the first volume by Karl Marx, so I have a question

00:32related to that.

00:34So in the first chapter itself, there is a term that Marx coins which is commodity fetishism.

00:41And what he says is that we have made everything into commodities, that's the basic unit in

00:45capitalism and we think that we can assign it a certain value.

00:51That value is actually a composition of two things, a use value and an exchange value.

00:56And the use value is what we do with that thing, for example a mobile phone can be used

01:01by some terrorist to launch an attack or somebody to connect to your session.

01:07So that means there is no unique way of assigning a value using the use value.

01:11But at the other end we can look at it as exchange value.

01:14So the labor theory of value says that, that's what Marx arrives at, is that the exchange

01:21value or the cost that we think of things comes from the associated labor that has gone

01:26into it.

01:28And if we look at even something like a mobile phone, if we break it down into its components

01:33and we keep going deeper and deeper, eventually we will reach physical nature.

01:36So there is physical nature and then there is a lot of human labor that has conditioned

01:41the physical nature into an object that we are using.

01:44So you have often said that we should stay in this world, we have to use the things around

01:53us in the right way.

01:55So focusing on the use value, it doesn't mean that we should leave everything, we should

01:59not use mobile phones, we should use things around us in the right way but at the other

02:04end of the spectrum where we are talking about exploitation of labor, laborers, wage laborers

02:11as well as physical nature itself, when we go right to the bottom, in fact like in mining

02:16and in industries where we literally take earth elements, there is a lot of exploitation,

02:21literal exploitation and that's the source.

02:24So the great success of capitalism according to Marx is alienation.

02:27Why I am saying that is because where we sit most of the times, we don't know what is happening

02:32at the bottom of the chain.

02:34So my question is, without class consciousness, which is ultimately what Marx arrived at,

02:40what we can do to rectify this is class consciousness which will take care of that exchange value

02:44problem.

02:45People aren't even aware that they are part of a huge matrix and so with spirituality

02:51and the way you put it, we are focusing on the use value.

02:54So how do we, I mean we are tackling one part of the value, value definition but the other

03:00part of the definition is tackled by class consciousness according to Marx.

03:04So I just wanted to ask your views about that.

03:07That's not really true.

03:08If use value is the only thing that spirituality talks of, then we would be very happy to accept

03:22animal flesh for example.

03:27It has a certain use.

03:29But is that what spirituality advocates?

03:33Don't we talk of knowing where the stuff in your plate comes from?

03:42You took the example of the mobile phone and you said that you must be conscious of the

03:47mind that rare earth let's say comes from, that goes into the mobile.

03:56Similarly have we not been continuously talking of knowing where the stuff in that packaged

04:08item, food item is coming from?

04:13So use in spiritual terms includes being conscious of everything in totality.

04:28Use as Marx puts it is just about fulfilling your desire.

04:40If something fulfills your desire, Marx would say it's useful to you.

04:43But that's not how Vedant would look at it.

04:48Vedant would not say that if something is fulfilling my desire, I call it useful.

04:54No, not that way.

04:56I have to know because ultimately the thing of use to me is understanding, bodh, realization.

05:06How can I reach that ultimately useful thing if I do not know what is useful to me right

05:16now, if I do not know the totality of it.

05:20So I really have to know everything.

05:23If you are using the mobile phone, that includes knowing all the constituents, components,

05:31even the taxation part, even the foreign policy part involved.

05:38No mobile phone, at least in India, is fully indigenous.

05:43When you are paying for it, you must know where the money is really going to.

05:52Same goes with things like selecting a job.

05:58Once you accept a job offer, let's say in the campus, it could be the Pilani campus

06:02or the IIM campus, is it just about the job being useful to you or must you also know

06:12what your labor is really going towards.

06:17In fact, I used to say you must, before you take up an offer, you must also ask who the

06:24shareholders are and how their CVs look.

06:29Because ultimately a company exists for the shareholders profits, does it not?

06:36That's the sole purpose of its existence.

06:39It exists to maximize shareholder profit.

06:43So that's what you work for there.

06:46You want to know how they would utilize the profits you are giving them.

06:55You work very hard, you give them certain money and they fly to Dubai and purchase heavy

07:03jewelry for their wives and keeps.

07:07How does that sound to you?

07:09That's the output of your entire month's or year's work.

07:14Some random fat woman is now walking around with loads of jewelry.

07:21That's what you work for really.

07:23How does that sound?

07:26And ostensibly the company might exist to uplift the face of technology in the country

07:36and you may feel very happy.

07:38You might say, oh, this is useful.

07:40You might say it is useful.

07:41I'm working here.

07:44But the company does not exist merely for its abode objective.

07:48Remember it exists for the shareholders and the other stakeholders to the extent practically

07:57possible.

07:58You must go into all of this.

07:59You must ask yourself, what am I doing?

08:03That was the reason why I left the bureaucratic option.

08:09I would be working in the government without having any control over what my work, my labor,

08:17my time is really resulting into.

08:22Even if I am the district collector, let's say, I'm a very small pawn.

08:30The ones sitting on top are far too powerful to let me work with freedom, let alone go

08:39beyond the system.

08:42So should I just look at the use that job offers to me and it could be a very ethical

08:48use as well.

08:49You know, I could usefully convince me that I am doing some good work on the ground as

08:54many bureaucrats do.

08:56They actually do some good work on the ground.

09:00But in totality, what does that result into?

09:04What does that mean?

09:06Some hideous politician will come and say that all the development work I have done

09:10in the district has been powered by the funds sanctioned by him and that will enable him

09:18to win the next elections.

09:20That's the net output of all the work that I have done as the district collector.

09:25Penny wise, pound foolish.

09:27That's the reason I dropped that idea.

09:33So that is enabled greatly, that consciousness you are talking of, that is enabled greatly

09:39in this age by technology.

09:42Today you can really know and that's what I was just talking of.

09:48Use technology to the fullest.

09:52How was our friend here saying that he feels lonely?

09:56Why don't you get into the integrity of everything?

09:58Don't you want to know where your t-shirts come from?

10:02It's probably coming from Bangladesh.

10:04Do you know the kind of shop it's being produced in?

10:10Not sure.

10:12But there might be child labour, who knows?

10:16And it's interesting, you know, Google is a blessing, is it not?

10:24Your t-shirt, your specs, your cosmetics, your shoes, don't you want to research on

10:34all those things?

10:36Today you need not even move to a physical library.

10:42Everything is available, mostly for free.

10:45And even if there are subscriptions, they are very affordable.

10:50So know, know and know.

10:52And I'm talking of very basic, objective, worldly knowledge, not even inner realisation.

11:00That's the right use of technology.

11:04Let it enable knowledge.

11:09No point, for example, cursing China and not even knowing the depth of Chinese investment

11:17in India.

11:19What kind of patriotism is this, where you know neither India nor China, nor trade and

11:25not even patriotism.

11:28You know none of these and yet you shout aloud as a patriot.

11:32What's going on?

11:36Are we really even literate?

11:42This mobile phone in your hand is your great enabler towards freedom.

11:53If you know really how to use it, it will tell you of things that will be very disturbing

12:01and therefore very liberating.

12:07I talk so much of food, for example.

12:13Animal flesh is obviously obnoxious for a thousand reasons.

12:17But even the vegetarian food that you are taking, do you bother to read up about it?

12:24Do you know what's going on?

12:29And it does not really require class consciousness, believe me.

12:32It just requires consciousness.

12:35If you start belonging to a class, it impedes consciousness.

12:40You need not be identified with a class or community or any division of any kind.

12:48That hinders consciousness.

12:49Don't you see that?

12:51The moment I belong to a certain group, will I have the freedom to really know or will

13:00I be constrained by the dynamics and identities of that group or class or whatever.

13:08So all you need is consciousness.

13:15Is it getting too heavy?

13:16I think it is.

13:22You are great people really.

13:23When I was your age, I wouldn't have tolerated this kind of thing.

13:28Disgusting.

13:30Disgusting.

13:31For two hours, somebody is talking some Archean stuff, no?

13:55You are a wonderful audience.

13:57Seriously.

13:58How old are you?

13:59Seventeen?

14:00Eighteen?

14:01Twenty?

14:02Nineteen.

14:03Wonderful.

14:04Wonderful.

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