Class Struggle
Individuals make up a society, and the process of producing and distributing the needs of individuals and of society at large is called the Economy . Sections of society mainly differ in their relation to how their needs are met, and how much of the Economy is under their control and in what way.
These "sections" are called "Classes", and throughout history has changed according to how the economy was structured. Those who control the economy, either by owning all the productive Land or own all the tools needed to produce goods, have a certain set of goals. Those who are under the influence and control of the former, have another, different, set of goals.
More often than not, these sets of goals are incompatible with one another, and the resulting clash is what's called "Class Conflict".
- A slave wants to break free from their bondage, while, say, a Roman citizen wants to retain the level of wealth they have as a result of slave labor.
- A medieval peasant *needs* to have enough of the harvest left for the winter, unless they starve to death. Their [feudal lord](neofeudalism.html#feudalism), on the other hand, want enough resources and labor to maintain their power.
- A factory worker wants better working conditions and a liveable wage, while the factory owner and his investors all want to maximize their profits.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master(3) and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. ~
Ever since the industrial revolution, the class struggle has mainly taken the form of the Labor Movement, which can trace its roots to even before the time of General Ludd . In the coming crises , however, it's beginning to look more and more like it'll be between those who profit from the murder of the planet, and those who'll be crushed in their path.
Behind the veil of the Covid-19 pandemic, 227 people were killed last year protecting forests, water and other natural resources under increasing stress from climate change, making 2020 the deadliest year on record for environmental defenders according to a report published Monday. ~
People from privileged groups may misperceive equality-boosting policies as harmful to them, even if they would actually benefit.
Previous studies have found that advantaged people often don’t support interventions that redistribute their resources to others who are disadvantaged, in zero-sum scenarios where there are limited resources.
Now, researchers have explored the degree to which people from advantaged groups think equality-promoting policies would harm their access to resources, in scenarios where the strategies would benefit or have no effect on their group, while bolstering the resources of a disadvantaged group.
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