Marx on the American Funeral System

Marx on the American Funeral System

We live a capitalist life and we die a capitalist death. In our lifetime, we become consumers and workers with a set of ideologies that we like to think we made up by ourselves. Our addiction to commodities and false sense of identity follows us even into our funeral homes. In fact, as Americans we prepare ourselves more for our death than a pharaoh in Ancient Egypt. For instance, Jessica Mitford painted the American funeral system and those who work in it as "merchants of a rather grubby order, preying on grief, remorse and guilt of survivors." There are unnecessary embalmers, groveling funeral directors, and overpriced coffins that sell for hundreds more than what they cost to be produced. The American Funeral System wrings as much money as possible from the bereaved while making it seem like they are doing something vital. According to Marxist theory, the American funeral system functions under alienation and commodity fetishism. Capitalism has made our once simple, cheap funeral system into an expensive and unnecessary display in which death never makes an appearance.

The mechanization of the American funeral system is reminiscent of Marx's warning that mechanization leads to the alienation of workers. Even the funeral system has become alienated in that nothing is done by human hands. The transportation of the corpse from the funeral home to the earth is a perfect example of mechanization. The casket is transferred to a Cadillac Funeral Coach by a hydraulically operated device then it is interred into the earth by a patented mechanical lowering device. Even the ritual of sprinkling earth over the casket can be done by a mechanical dispenser. In Marxist theory, mechanization alienates human beings as they find false identity in commodities. In capitalist society, "the worker is degraded to the most miserable sort of commodity" . The larger the power and size of his production, the greater misery the worker lies in. The worker becomes cheaper if he produces more. The more the worker produces, the more powerful the alien so that he creates a world opposite of himself and the "poorer he becomes in his inner life and the less he can call his own" . The workers relates to the product of their labor as an "alien object" outside of themselves. In essence capitalism exploits the worker by taking away the products of his labor so that he has no real identity. Likewise, mechanization disables human beings to grasp the idea of death because they themselves are taking no active part in the funeral. Instead, machines are doing the roles that human beings should be doing, but this is all the better for the capitalist because it allows him to profit from the sale of the machines that he did not take a part in producing.

In regards to Capitalism, Marx also warned of the false surplus value of commodities. For instance, the American funeral system requires that we embalm and restore ourselves for our death, and many Americans are not even aware that such a practice goes on. In fact, funeral directors discourage the family from witnessing the embalming procedure. No law requires the embalming, no religion commends it, and it is not done for health considerations, so then why do we choose to embalm our dead loved ones? Marx's reason for these unnecessary actions lies in what he calls commodity fetishism. Capitalism allows commodity fetishism to appear normal, but it is actually highly unusually. In capitalist society, human beings give unreasonable