Then begins an epoch of social revolution.” From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. “At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production, or - what is but a legal expression for the same thing - with the property relations within which they have been at work hitherto. Marx goes on to explain that it is precisely in those periods when society can no longer develop the productive forces – when science, technology, and industry stagnate when economic growth, employment, and rising living standards cannot be guaranteed – that revolutions occur, in order to remove the barriers standing in the way of progress: It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” “The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. “In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The Marxist analysis of history – that is, the dialectical and materialist analysis of history – explains that the main motor force in history is the need for society to develop the productive forces: to increase our knowledge of and mastery over nature to reduce the socially necessary labour time needed to produce and reproduce the conditions of life to improve lifestyles and raise the standards of living.Īs Marx himself writes in his preface to “ A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”:

Capitalism ii turn off technology