Marx was right: class conflict is the principal contradiction. During the industrial era, from the mid-1800s to the 1970s, material class conflict was indeed the main cleavage in (Western) politics. Since the shift toward a post-industrial, knowledge-based information society, this class conflict is no longer waged primarily on the economic front, it is increasingly fought on the cultural and social front. Unfortunately, these kinds of non-material cleavages have become so salient that they distract from the still very relevant and urgent economic issues. This is, of course, no coincidence - divisions by race, gender, habitus and so on are deliberately fostered and reinforced to protect the profits of the one percenters.
Therefore, my grievance is the crushing preponderance of identity issues these days which is just a distraction from what the real conflict should be: the 99% vs the 1%.
(Wow, if this is the first post some new user reads from me, he'll probably think I'm a Bernie acolyte.
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This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 1 2021 08:27am