this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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[–] GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Speaking as a Marxist, this is false. Capitalism was once the historical progressive force against feudalism. This was already waning two centuries ago, but it was not always true.

Glad another Marxist said it. The problem isn't that capitalism was always the wrong choice, it's that we're clinging to it long beyond its best before date.

[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

And now it's rapidly turning back into feudalism, while the masses clap and cheer.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure but did capitlism really defeat feudalism? Seems like the other side of the same coin.

[–] GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, it did, though vestiges still remain. That's what the French Revolution overwhelmingly was, the bourgeoisie claiming power over the old feudal nobility and the monarchy (as anything but a figurehead). Also the American revolution and many others.

They resemble each other because they are in all cases the "owning class" claiming the seat as the "ruling class", just as the slaveholders of classical antiquity and the patriarchs of pre-historical agrarian/pastoral societies.

It's kind of a tangent, but in explaining the concept of equality, Lenin discusses some of the differences between feudalism and liberal capitalism in a letter here.

There are places such as Thailand and Bhutan where the struggle is still alive between the two modes of production, but those are the very rare exceptions to the global order of liberal capitalism (in various forms) vs whatever you want to call the theocratic capitalism of Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. vs the state socialism of the PRC, Cuba, etc.