A Marxian economic analysis of interpersonal communication within a capitalist system finds that capitalism, with its attendant stress on wholly economic values, produces a commodity-oriented society. Mass media advertising is the primary vehicle through which the capitalist culture indoctrinates the ideas of competition for the intangibles (love, freindship, etc.) as well as the tangible things of the culture. Thus intangibles become commodities. The counter-culture (flower children, purposive dropouts, etc.), community action groups (school liberation, free medical clinics, etc.), and women's liberation offer promise of improvement and rejection of society's consumer-oriented value system. (CH)