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In Marxism, the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.

I do not understand the bolded part very well.

In addition, would you give me an example about such a sentence?

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    That's a pretty darn open-ended question. What about the statement confuses you?
    – T.E.D.
    Jul 23, 2014 at 15:28
  • Would you please readily explain the bold part? and give an example so that I can understand it well?
    – nima_persian
    Jul 23, 2014 at 15:42
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    What exactly would you like to hear? Why Marx and his followers believed this crap 100 years ago? Or how his modern idiotic followers reinterpret every word you set in bold to make it believable today?
    – sds
    Jul 23, 2014 at 15:45
  • @ihtkwot: Or even perhaps English.stackexcange.com
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Jul 23, 2014 at 20:33

1 Answer 1

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Marx believed that society, politics and economics were subject to inevitable forces that would cause change. (Dialectical Materialism for those of you who have too much time and too much sanity). Loosely speaking, Marx believed in a form of social evolution.

Marx also believed that "class" was a useful framework for analyzing society - by analyzing the class interests, you could determine the political viewpoint and agenda of individuals. He believed that the proletariat shared a common interest and the Bourgeois shared a common interest, and that the class interests were more important than any other tie between individuals. Race, gender, sports teams, sexuality, etc were all irrelevant because the proletariat's class interest was the only useful predictor of politics.

The status quo was bourgeois oppression - wealth was in the hands of the bourgeois class and the primary interest of that class was oppression of the bourgeois (*update: user4581 is correct, it would be more precise to say that the primary interest was to oppress the proletariat in order to maintain the supremacy of the bourgeois; I find that level of precision rare). Apparently if you have wealth, you lose interest in sex, sports, food and drink in favor of the joy of oppression.

According to Marx's historical viewpoint the status quo - bourgeois oppression - would inevitably give way to a socialist revolution. Once the bourgeois were overthrown, then all of mankind would recognize their essential brotherhood. Manchester United Fans would root for Liverpool and vice versa because everyone would be a proletariat, everyone would be equal and everyone would be happy. Once you dispose of the Bourgeois, there is no longer any need for class.

Obligatory disclaimers 1) It should be obvious to anyone who has read any of my answers that I don't have a lot of respect for Marxist economic theory. It simply doesn't describe any reality in which I've ever lived.

2) I don't have any good resources to recommend; partly because of (1) and partly because OP is asking for an explanation which is rather difficult. Yahoo does a decent job, but I think the fundamental problem is bending your mind to all the assumptions that Marx held and which are no longer tenable.

3) A potentially useful reference is Revolutions Podcast 3.1 - the first five minutes don't answer the question, but I think they help to clarify the process of understanding Marxist history.

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    Their primary interest is oppression to keep itself in power.
    – user45891
    Jul 24, 2014 at 16:27

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