Dialectical Materialism

Subject: Economy/polity

Context:

Thomas Piketty in his new book “Capital and Ideology” examines a trajectory of inequality in the world, with an optimistic suggestion on how to realise a better future for all.

Concept:

• Scholars look at income inequality in purely economistic terms, but Piketty is among those who look at such issues holistically, in their economic, sociological, historical, political and even cultural ramifications.
• Such scholars are a rare breed and are usually indebted to Karl Marx.
• In the Communist Manifesto, Marx had asserted that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
• Dialectical materialism led Marx to conclude that the pauperisation of peasants and workers would result in the violent overthrow of the propertied class, as in the Reign of Terror of 1789 and the 1917 October Revolution.
• But Piketty believes that a just society can be established through participatory socialism, with explicit power-sharing between workers and shareholders.