Fetishism of commodities

The analysis of commodities is Marx’s starting point to radically criticize capitalist societies. Commodities are not simple objects nor are they ahistorical because they are specifically tied with the era of capitalism. Marx analyses the two-fold nature of commodities, mainly use-value and exchange value. He then describes the two-fold nature of labor: useful labor which produces use-value and abstract labor which is the very substance of the commodity, or how it is valued in the eyes of the consumers. This abstract valuation of labor that determines the exchange value of goods (For example, we would compare the value of a pizza and a plane using money as a valuation mechanism and without this abstraction, it is not possible to compare the two).

The fetishism of commodities is giving them abstract qualities which, unlike weight, smell, color are not inherent to them. For example, price. This fetishism leads to production not being regulated by society but rather by commodities themselves. For example, it is only by placing their commodities on the market that producers can find out whether their product meets the social needs or not. So, it is the commodity itself, not society, not producers that creates the social relationship between units of production and decides what gets produced at what quantity. Commodities thus overshadow the social aspect of production and even get confused with it and this is why workers become estranged with it.

Fetishism of commodities is thus this double-movement: reification of social relationships and the humanization of objects (namely capital)