proletariat

bourgeoisie

blame

class struggle

class warfare

poverty

rich

welfare

is a class that needs to be convinced that it has a 'right to rule'.

For Gramsci, the proletariat had to be convinced that it had a 'right to rule'. To achieve this, the existing belief in the 'natural' right to rule of the existing 'ruling . . . '

is a group of people excluded from the benefits of society to which their efforts entitle them.

a group of people excluded from the benefits of society to which their efforts entitle them. We were showering students with privileges, and yet, at the same time, carefully excluding them from the general process of adult society.

is a group whose most significant trait is that they have no power or privileges to defend and in order to benefit, must destroy the entire system of class exploitation and private property.

The most significant trait of the proletariat, however, is that they have nothing to lose. By the nature of being proletarians, they have no power or privileges they must defend. Rather, to help themselves they must destroy the entire system. Because of this, when they have their revolution, they will destroy the entire system of class exploitation, including all private property. (Sparknotes).

is a revolutionary class because, unlike the shopkeeper, to say nothing of the bourgeoisie, they have nothing to preserve. Law, morality, religion, are all bourgeois prejudices which mask bourgeois interests.

Marx explains that the only class today that is really revolutionary is the proletariat. All of the other classes that fight the bourgeoisie-- such as the shopkeeper-- are conservative, fighting to preserve their existence. Among the proletariat, however, the Old Society is already past preservation. 'Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.

is an ephemeral phenomenon which emerges when it 'forces' its existence as the working class, by forcing the place the capitalist society accords it.

For Badiou the proletariat emerges when it 'forces' its existence as the working class by forcing the place that capitalist society accords it... 'every subject surpasses its place by force (Badiou 2009: 35-6). Importantly if the proletariat is thus essentially an ephemeral phenomenon in the sense that it emerges only thorugh periodic revolt, so too according to Badiou must our understanding of 'history' itself. Thus, far from having any strictly linear development, Badiou argues that history progresses in a series of stops and starts, all of which depends on the emergence of a subject that acts to 'periodize' it (ibid. p. 18, 92).

is endowed with a universal character in virtue of its total deprivation. It represents not a particular class of society, but all humanity.

Since human alienation is not a problem of a particular class, but a universal problem, whatever is to solve it must have a universal character and the proletariat, Marx claims, has this universal character in virtue of its total deprivation. It represents not a particular class of society, but all humanity. (peter Singer 'very short intro marx' :' 30) -' 'The nobility of man', he writes, 'shines forth from their toil-worn bodies' (MC 87) (in singer 31)

is more enslaved at the level of ideas than at the level of behavior.

for Gramsci, the proletariat is more enslaved at the level of ideas than at the level of behavior. The historic task of 'the party' is therefore . . . ']

is absent of its own unique kind of consciousness. There are only those who belong to the bourgeoisie and those who wish they did.

no such thing as a proletarian consciousness.

proletariat, n.All

proletariat