any advanced system we'd be very different assumptions about subsistence in
other parts of the world, but so, that's his point, to some extent.
However, as I said in the lectures,
there's also outward pressure on the definition of subsistence,
because of the problem of weak demand in capitalist systems.
So in order to keep the, keep the economy going, this is,
there's going to be pressure to create people who can buy what's being produced,
and so that means that the, on the one hand,
there's pressure to push wages down, but on the other hand,
there are other pressures to push wages up in order to stimulate demand, and so.
>> Or just give them credit cards.
>> Or give them credit cards, yeah.
You know, I don't think Marx thought about debt very much, so
he didn't really have a theory of debt, but yeah, but, so
that the, the, the, what counts as subsistence becomes complicated and
that means whether workers will ever get to the point where they
believe they have nothing to lose but their chains, gets cast into doubt.
Because if they've got goods and services, and they've got TV, and they've got cars,
and, and they've got other things it's not clear they will conclude that
they've got nothing left to lose ever, and so that's, that's, you know,
why woolwork has become revolutionary, it's not obvious that they will.
>> So, this might be a good place to handle in itself self-distinction, so
does that mean that the working class wouldn't be able to get to the place
where they become a class for itself could you just go over the distinction again?
>> Yes. >> And the,
because there's some confusion also about how it's translated and
what the languages of it, so it gets confusing.
>> Yeah, yeah.
So the basic idea of the forward self, and
this isn't the best way to have translated it, but the basic idea of forward self is,
is what people actually believe, as opposed to
the objective definition which depends on this idea of compulsion and I talk about.
So.
Now, if you take a step back and
look at the whole of human history in Marx's scheme, it's not just a,
it's, it's, it's all through human history, people have,
have been making history not understanding exactly what history they were making.
Okay. They didn't in,
under feudalism on his account or all of your modes of production.
People didn't understand their positions in it.
So they weren't classes for themselves, in that sense.
And what he thinks is going to be unique about the communist revolution is that for
the first time, the class in itself and
the class for itself will eventually become synonymous.
That the class for itself, the proletariat will understand
the basic system and wh, their place in it and that's why it's
going to be qualitatively different from all previous revolutions in history.
That's Marxist's belief.
Now what's going to drive it?
well, its the tricky thing we were just referring to, which is, he says that,
because, because wages are constantly driven toward subsistence at a time when
the surplus is growing and growing and growing, workers are going get angrier and
angrier because they, they are going to be suffering from immiseration.
Ira, and surrounded by opulence.