So as Marxists, as I understand it, we’re supposed to consider systems like feudalism, capitalism and socialism as fundamentally transitory. I also understand that communism is different, being classless and therefore containing no contradictions that would drive any “autodynamic” or organic social change. Maybe I have a skewed understanding of our ideology, but this feels like a bold assertion. If history can be summarized as class struggle, and communism has no class struggle, is communism the end of history?

Hopefully this makes sense.

    • @cfgaussian
      link
      42 years ago

      New class societies may re-emerge at certain times and in certain places, but they will be seen as undesirable aberrations and the results of disruptions of the normal functioning of advanced human society by natural disasters, ecological catastrophes, etc. temporary setbacks in the civilizational level of a society going back to world-historically outdated modes of production. The struggle will then be to reverse these backslides and prevent them from gaining enough strength to replicate themselves elsewhere. They will be treated like occasional outbreaks of a disease.

        • @cfgaussian
          link
          32 years ago

          The difference there being that socialism is a more advanced mode of production than capitalism. The struggle for socialism in a capitalist society is therefore progressive. The re-emergence of class society in a communist world would be regressive, similar to how we today would view the re-emergence of slavery or feudalism (though the bourgeoisie would love to bring the former back if they could and is currently trying very hard to actually bring back the latter as corporate fiefdoms).