Commodity Fetishism, #TrumpsAmerica and Human Trafficking
There are five sub-branches of philosophy: logic, epistemology, social & political, ethics, and ontology. These branches of philosophy form a part in Plato’s work, The Republic, and that of Freud’s, Civilization and its Discontents. Logic gives our reason for beliefs and is the science that gives us the rules of correct knowledge. Epistemology is the philosophy of knowledge and the conditions, limits and justification that allows humanity to accept a piece of data as knowledge. Social and political philosophy relates to how human beings form societies, as well as creating and enforcing the institutions that contain them. Ethics applies to the realization in what is a good life — what is right and that is wrong. Lastly, ontology or metaphysics asks the question of being, existence, and reality. Overall, the theory of one overlaps the other in both works; allowing the balance that is accepted philosophy in one’s mind, body, and spirit.
In The Republic, Plato begins with the notion on what it means to be just and behave justly. He defines the symbolism that is society and the norms that enforce submission to the law. What are the means to which encourages man to be just and whether it is to feel inherently good or to satisfy the positive and negative freedoms that our society encompasses? A positive freedom is self-realization, freedom for being all that you can be or want to be whereas a negative freedom is non-interference in accomplishing simply what you want to do. Negative freedoms are excess to which positive freedoms are a necessity in competing with today’s society. Socially, we form the capacity to learn, grow, and even compete with one another. By succeeding in the performance of positive freedoms, you are able to participate in society while also receiving the benefits and resources that it provides. Negative freedoms provide the reality that oneself is not actually free. You, for example, may have access to watching television whenever you’d like — which is a negative freedom, but also receiving funding to attend a university — which is a positive freedom. This can also be seen in today’s line of careers and political tone. According to the reading, Ritzer on Alienation, Karl Marx believed that there is an inherent relation between labor and human nature that is perverted by capitalism, known as perverted relation alienation. You no longer see labor as an expression of our purpose, and because our labor is no longer our own, it no longer transforms us — thus alienating us from our true human nature. Plato’s definition of justice appeals to this notion by providing evidence that our society is then unjust. The temperance is the understanding of what should rule in order to create a just society which is the ideal form of a society. In order to have a just city, all must mind their businesses.
There is a separation between the city that summizes the rulers, guardians, and artisans. The citizens must mind their specific duties and pay what is owed. Being just is being intrinsically good, thus as a formation of soul the rulers (politicians) manage laws, the guardians or auxiliaries, enforce and protect the spirit of justice, and the artisans take care of the needs and individual soul. Reasons, intellect and implicit respect for one’s duty implies a just being. To Plato, a community is just, if it is a structured political body that lives in harmony. For him, an ideal society consists of your common folk (tradesmen, and farmers), warriors, and guardians. This system of classification can align within the system that separates groups of people in Marxist thought. This is whether one owns means of production decides the class level that the individual may identify with. In his logic, you either own the factory or you don’t, and if you ever planned to overthrow the proletariat, you need to overthrow the means of production. This system is followed and when the security of a capitalist economy is in question, it can potentially affect the triangle that encompasses the concept of a society — including the media, mass-culture, state litigation, and religion. As each society is comprised of groups of people, they must each perform their appropriate function in order to sufficiently assume the right position of power in relation to the others. It is not until each societal role is fulfilled that justice is assumed. The justice of an individual mirrors the justice of a society and its politics. There is a claim that there are three parts of an individual that aligns between the three classes that is a just society. The parts of this individual results in the rationalization of the soul seeking after knowledge, truth and the tendency to act upon aggregated information; a spiritual ability to accept ones existence and is responsible for emotions and money used to fulfill the basic desire. With these three components, an individual may assume his/her position in the just society.
Today, America’s political atmosphere is growing more and more hostile and into an unjust society that competes without other proper components in order to assume positions that should not be granted. The president, Donald Trump has successfully deceived the majority electoral to thinking that he will be the appropriate level of extremism that will entail a proper progression in our economy, domestic and foreign interest, globalization through intimidation, coercion, and the movement of fake news in order to create a society that is no longer just but now merely aggravated and irrational. Today, students at John Carroll University are waking up in fear. They fear the fact that they are on a 10 month visa that now cannot be renewed because of recent bans. Their ability to access higher-level education has suddenly been indirectly taken away from them all because of circumstance. One of Freud’s main contentions is that civilization is responsible for our misery: we organize ourselves into civilized society to escape suffering, only to inflict it back upon ourselves. We may see this with the current political climate and retaliation of the decisions that Trump has executed within his first week in office. Is it to blame on the opposed to have not prepared ourselves for the potential of Trump actually winning? Should the population of voters who voted against Trump be marching in the street; is there any point? When investigating the ulterior motive behind these marches you may find that these men, women, and children are marching as they would have marched if Hilary Clinton was elected president. As they would have done so if Bernie Sanders was our president elect; as alike to Marco Rubio or Ted Strickland. We find that it does take one bill to effect and implicate immediate change upon our country, but it takes more than that to create the history of oppression that has built up, carving a motive for those who flood the streets with white picket signs — yelling their muster in unearthed emotions that have been hidden for far too long.
On another hand, you see the annual Super Bowl creeping up behind the nuclear American families. Another year to celebrate the sweat, brawn, and muscle that is, football. Little do many know that this celebration is the very misery of other human beings; of other Americans. Little do you know that there are little boys and girls — men and women, being sold for sex against their will. These individuals have become victim of the horrendous industry known as sex trafficking. Freud suggests that humans stop at nothing to satisfy their libido. Now what of the libido of those who purchase this sex. Is this libido unnatural and does it deserve the punishment that it entails? Is the punishment harsh enough? Is it even an issue that our government is bending over backwards to end? Though sex trafficking happens 365 days a year, the Super Bowl is the largest human trafficking incident in the United States. American children are being exploited through pornography or prostitution right under our noses. This crime against humanity persists because there continues to be a demand for it, and because it occurs in the shadows. It’s a hard world for victims to escape. Even when they do, they’re often treated as criminals, particularly due to the stigma attached to prostitution. In order for human trafficking to end, we need to have an open and honest conversation about it. And it would start with ending the demand of the industry. If the John’s who buy this sex were no longer in the picture, than the exchange no longer works. But how do you change the libido of a human being? Based upon Freudian theory, there are three parts to one’s whole that makes them a person: the id, ego, and superego. The id is the most primitive and instinctive component of a person. It is one’s instinct to be stimulated by physical interaction that associated to sexual interactions. In a just society seen in Plato’s works, those who resembled the id in a just society were the rulers. As managers of laws they had the authority to decide upon what is considered just and that unjust. There are rulers to a city and rulers to their own being. As a ruler to their own being, an individual has the ability to decide on their behalf what is just and what is unjust of them to do. The ego, seen as the guardians and artisans, are those who provide services to enforce and acclimate to the society and its justness. Once the society is just, the society is intrinsically good and the super ego of a society has been reached. Until the society is able to get to this point, until a civilization is able to cultivate what it means to be happy and intrinsically good, we must continue to attack the tendency to act upon the desires of our genital libido which requests direct satisfaction. If the Johns in our society were able to push aside their id desires, then a society could push towards individuals becoming more just; thus creating the just society. According to Freud in, Civilization and Its Discontents, “Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and people are frightened of responsibility…It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement — that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.” This being said, people then are seeking this power and ability to thrive in life while also avoiding responsibilities. This is the truth that is seen upon positive and negative freedoms; where we should avoid negative freedoms even if they carry less responsibility. Individuals who tend to gravitate towards negative freedoms are the same individuals who have lost hope in our society and end up becoming more prone to violence or wrongful action. These are those who did not take advantage of positive freedoms such as the education upon the right of a man, women, or minor: boys and girls. These Johns have ignored the advertisements in our society that showed this act to be morally wrong. It is unfortunate that we see Johns to be those whom we usually would assume to have our highest respect. The top three buyers of sex in the trafficking industry are politicians, police-officers, and clergy-men. It almost seems that similar to, Elijah Anderson’s ‘code of the street’: also known as the respect that is gained through violent action. The primitive satisfaction that is brought upon acting in a way that may be unjust so long as they get away with the action. Then, this shows that the John can avoid positive freedoms and still assume the gratification of those freedoms because they are getting away with the negative freedoms. They are masking themselves as positive contributors to our society. As not only guardians but also rulers. They create a hidden set of behaviors that would otherwise divide them as street beings versus decent beings. As said in, The Republic, “the just man then, as it seems, has come to light as a kind of robber” (Plato, 334). By having a tendency to secretly keep the status of a street being, they are habitually acting as positive enforcers of a just society while not actually being true members of the process in a creating the just society; instead, they are the contributors — or “robbers” to the injustice of trafficking that occurs in our cities and neighborhoods.
In, Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud states that, “a love that does not discriminate seems to me to forfeit a part of its own value, by doing an injustice to its object; and secondly, not all men are worth of love” (Freud). This is why Freud believed that a civilization does not collapse because we ask too much of love. Instead, a civilization thrives upon beings searching for love. There are some who have the tendency to be unable to create the strength needed to maintain love and commitment to one person. This being tends to more likely becoming a John that contributes to sex trafficking. They are lonely and they feel isolated from the norms of society; thus behaving against what is just. Psychologically, these individuals need therapeutic change in their lives. They need motivation and commitment to seeing hope in our society and their own life. If they no longer feel the need to satisfy that genital libido, then the demand of sex trafficking will decrease. This then hits the industry with damage upon their profits. Slowly, this could be the rationale solution to eliminating the sex trade.
Overall, the establishment of a just society is more complicated that what is assumed. From, The Republic, “when and for whom is a lie useful? Isn’t it useful against enemies, and, as a preventative, like a drug for so-called friends when from madness of some folly they attempt to do something bad?” (Plato, 382). Why is a lie ever useful? This may be if it prevents bad actions from occurring that may impact the justice in a society or to a human being. This is not true for the sex trafficking industry as well as the current political tone that Trump portrays. Traffickers coerce women into believing that they are not victims and Trump coerce citizens into believing that we must have fear towards specific types of people; not due to their own individual actions, but instead due to their ethnicity and background. Trump, again and again, argues that anything published that commonly criticizes his policies and actions, is simply, “fake news”. As a being in a respected position, how can we continue to respect him and this role if he is illegitimating the ability to lead a just society thru fear and hate? How can we continue to allow a ruler act upon desires that are not intrinsically good; thus continuing the injustices such as sex trafficking that are occurring? So long as we allow Donald Trump to have the power to manage laws and the movement of our society, it will remain unjust.
