The History of Class Warfare

[Lord Baal]

This article is conflating like six different theories of political power, and the result is gibberish.

BAM!

This article, which I admittedly merely skimmed, conflates a bunch of different theories, applies them all indiscriminately, and lumps them all under an inaccurate heading.

Class struggle can take many forms, the most popular currently being the 'rich-vs-poor' narrative, but that is far from the only one extant, both today and in the past. My personal expertise is Nazi Germany, where many of the wealthy were basically bigger slaves to the state than the poor were.

 

[Traitorfish]

Since you(Traitorfish) think the article is gibberish can you point out something better that is still palatable to a politically broad group of history buffs?

I don't think there is or can be any all-encompassing history of class conflict. It's too broad a phenomenon to allow general theories or aeon-spanning narratives. Even the relatively narrow conception of "class struggle" propounded by Marx only applies to a certain kind of society, capitalism, and the best elaborations upon it have tended to stress the ambiguity, plasticity and instability of class identities (and of social identities generally).

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Class struggle can take many forms, the most popular currently being the 'rich-vs-poor' narrative, but that is far from the only one extant, both today and in the past.

Class struggle isn't something a class engages in, it's something individuals do according to their class. This is what I mean about class warfare versus class struggle. Class warfare is a direct confrontation, like you said: rich vs. poor. It's a conscious choice one makes. But class struggle isn't the direct political confrontation, it's the natural wearing against an unequal system by people struggling against the inequality of that system. That's how Marxists see the dynamic of history as being shaped by class struggle: it changes the dynamics of wealth until the foundation for the old system becomes unsustainable, and the oppressed class(es) forces change now that it's become possible to kick down the rotting doors of the old order.

No one would say that you trying to get a better job, or earn more money, or otherwise increase the material comfort and security of yourself and your family is confrontational class warfare. Yet it is the very definition of class struggle. Class warfare has inherent connotations of sides and correctness, which you can see easily leads to the political confrontation. But class struggle has no "sides," it's just people acting out their roles according to class in an unequal society. And since every society has been unequal and biased in favor of a small minority, the collective self-interested actions of the oppressed majority have always forced a change through those simple actions, toward a new social organization more compatible with their interests.

There's obviously more to it than that, nothing in life is ever so simply formulaic, but I still think understanding class struggle as the dynamo of social evolution is an extremely useful way of understanding and analyzing our past and present. And perhaps our future.