Class Struggle or Climate Collapse? Theorists Fight Over Communism's Post-Revolution Crisis
The core debate centers on what contradiction defines society after the abolition of class structures. There is no single agreement on this future crisis.
Some users insist the struggle remains material, pointing to the 'imperialist class of the worldwide economy' as a persistent threat, while others dismiss focusing on decades-future theory, arguing academics must stick to 'current historical conditions of our times' (PolandIsAStateOfMind). A third faction suggests the conflict will shift entirely away from people vs. people, focusing instead on the clash between humanity and the natural world, citing resource limits and climate decay. Meanwhile, the outlier takes the contradiction even further back, identifying primitive communism's struggle as people versus nature.
The sheer volume of argument is split between immediate historical analysis and massive future speculation. While some point to concrete limitations like 'production-consumption-waste contraduction' (freagle), the strongest dividing line separates those obsessed with class continuation from those pivoting the entire theoretical focus onto environmental collapse or resource scarcity.
Key Points
The future contradiction must be environmental or material.
Multiple users cite the contradiction between human development and the natural world, including climate change, as the next major hurdle (PolandIsAStateOfMind, redtea).
Focus must remain on current historical contradictions, not distant theory.
Commenters actively push back against speculative futures, demanding focus on 'current historical conditions' (PolandIsAStateOfMind, felipeforte).
Class conflict remains the central contradiction even post-socialism.
felipeforte argues class contradictions might endure, pointing to the 'imperialist class of the worldwide economy' as a constant factor.
Primitive communism's defining struggle is human vs. nature.
muad_dibber explicitly contrasts the struggle in early stages—scarcity, predators, disease—against the focus on group conflict.
The contradiction involves resource output versus finite availability.
redtea suggests the tension is between raising standards of living/energy output and the problem of finite resources like fertilizer.
Source Discussions (3)
This report was synthesized from the following Lemmy discussions, ranked by community score.