Classlessness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Classlessness refers to a type of society in which social classes do not exist. Broadly speaking, such societies can be divided in two distinct categories:
- Societies in which classes have never developed. These are usually the kind of societies where all people naturally play similar economic roles — thus they have never created a division of labour; they include most early human groups, as well as the more recent societies of the native inhabitants of North America, many Pacific islands, and so on. Some of them are forms of primitive communism.
- Societies where classes have been abolished. Such a situation is usually the result of a voluntary decision by the members of a certain society, to abolish that society's class structure. It might be argued that this includes most modern communes, most notably the Paris Commune, the kibbutzim, etc. Furthermore, the abolition of social classes and the establishment of a classless society is the ultimate goal of communism, libertarian socialism and anarchism. Marx argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "..the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (quoted from the Communist Manifesto)
Classless societies are highly egalitarian, and they often do not use the concept of private property. Many are governed by a form of direct democracy.
Classlessness has also been used by some political writers to describe the intelligentsia in a society. Such writers argue that the intelligentsia do not feel allegiance to any particular class and are best placed to unbiasedly articulate the needs of society. Critics have argued that the intelligentsia are, more often than not, associated with the upper class.
[edit] See also
- proletariat, bourgeoisie, upper class, middle class, working class
- Class consciousness, Class conflict, Class warfare
- Class in the contemporary United States
- Stateless communism
Classlessness also refers to the state of mind required in order to operate effectively as a social anthropologist. Anthropological training includes making assessments of and therefore becoming aware of one's own class assumptions, so that these can be set aside from conclusions reached about other societies. This may be compared to ethnocentric biases or the "neutral axiology" required by Max Weber. Otherwise conclusions reached about studied societies will likely be coloured by the anthropologist's own class values.
