POL 315 MODULE 1
In communal society (communalism) every member of society produced
both for themselves and for society as a whole; there were no conflicts
of interest between individuals and groups. However, with the
emergence of private property and, in particular, private ownership of
the means of production, the fundamental contradiction of human
society was created. Through its ownership of the means of production,
a minority is able to control and command and enjoy the fruits of the
labor of the majority. Since one group gains at the expense of the others,
a conflict of interest exists between the minority who owns the means of
production and the majority who perform productive labor. The tension
and conflict generated by this contradiction are the major dynamic of
social change.
For long periods of history, people are largely unaware of the
contradictions that beset their societies. Through dialectical materialism
was developed the fundamental Marxist premise that the history of
society is the inexorable history of class struggle. According to this
premise, a specific class could rule only so long as it best represented
the economically productive forces of society; when it becomes
outmoded it would be destroyed and replaced and from this continuing
dynamic process a classless society would eventually emerge.
In modern capitalist society, the bourgeoisie - capitalist class had
destroyed and replaced the unproductive feudal nobility and had
performed the economically creative task of establishing the new
industrial order. The stage was thus set for the final struggle between the
bourgeoisie, which had completed its historic role, and the proletariat,
composed of the industrial workers, or makers of goods, which had
become the true productive class. For Marx history is a cycle of boom
and doom of the contending social forces in society.
4.0 CONCLUSION
The whole history-past epochs, is the history of class struggles, based on
material interest upon which all contradictions between the classes are to
be resolved. The working class should conquer the bourgeoisie political
power and this was the revolutionary force in history that Marx and
Engels discovered.
5.0 SUMMARY
The history of human society is a process of tension and conflict. Social
change is not a smooth, orderly progression which gradually unfolds in
harmonious evolution. Instead, it proceeds from contradictions built into
society, which are a source of tension, and ultimately, the source of open
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