One thing that stuck with me reading Marx's Communist Manifesto in high school was the idea that some professions contributed materially to society more than others. Farmers, factory workers, skilled laborers, and professionals like doctors and scientists all produced things or services that helped people and met basic needs. But some professions, like traders, bankers, and shop owners, produced comparatively little material benefit. Still other classes, like land owners, contributed absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, in a capitalistic society, the ones that reap the most profit are usually the ones that contribute the least.
I believe that Leo Tolstoy wouldn't have been entirely unsympathetic to this basic argument, as he often admired his serfs who worked the land, and would even join them at harvest time with a sythe.
And here I am today, working in business-to-business marketing. I only can see very tenuous links between what I do now and its benefit to society. I suppose that, by helping my clients market their products and services more effectively, I am making the marketplace more competitive. That, in capitalist theory, should make the overall market more efficient, and thus drive down the prices of the products and services for our clients' customers or help them derive greater benefit at the same price. I suppose that some of my clients' business customers produce something of material benefit to society, but in reality many of them might be professional services firms, or work in bourgeois industries like fashion or media.
The point to all this being that I can't really see how my job materially benefits society. If there is any benefit, it is far, far removed from me.
Don't worry, I am not a communist. I don't think communism is a realistic solution to the world's problems. In the end, the thing this present world needs more than anything is God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Looking at things that way, my marketing job helps feed my family so that I can spend the rest of my time telling people about the saving power of Jesus. And that, I believe, is definitely a direct material benefit to society.
3 comments:
I think it is misleading to see one's role in the world as confined to providing some material benefit directly to other individuals, resulting in a transactional value for one's life. Although I admire the simplicity of that model, I don't think it carries some special kind of moral legitimacy.
Each person derives numerous benefits from living in a society, and society sometimes rewards doing "impractical" things that others may nevertheless value. The danger lies in crediting those benefits to your intellect, hard work, good looks, uprightness, education, parentage, etc., instead of giving thanks to God.
Hi Dave, thanks for your insight. I agree that looking at things from a purely materialistic point of view is not healthy. I actually have a second post on why marketing is not the best profession (even though it's my profession) from a spiritual perspective ... stay tuned!
On marketing from a spiritual perspective...I am currently reading James Twitchell's book, Shopping for God. As a somewhat sympathetic outside observer (as he puts it, he is an "apatheist"), he has interesting insights on how Christians market Christianity to the world and to other Christians.
His focus is mainly on how white American Protestants develop the "branding" of their denominations, and how this correlates with the relative success of various denominations in increasing "market share."
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