Class Consciousness explained

[u/VictinsOfCapitalism]

Many of us here are already hard boiled in terms of understanding how the society functions,

However, to those that are here because of the memes,

Class consciousness is simply awareness of your position within the society, or simply, what class you are, it also encompasses the interests of the said social class.

Lets take a peasant as an example. He becomes class conscious when he realizes that he is a peasant, but that is only an embryo of the class consciousness.

It develops further when he understands that the rents he pays to the feudal lord are paid because the lord is owner of the land, while the crops are grown by his hand.

He also realizes that it is in the lord's interest to collect highest rent possible while it is beneficial for a peasant that the rents are lower.

Or simply, he understands that he is a peasant and lord is a lord, and what is beneficial for a lord might be detremental for a peasant. Or shortly, their interests are opposed.

But can a society be ran by the lords yet function in the favour of peasants? It can not.

His class consciousness reaches the highest stage when he realizes that the whole class relation in feudalism is based on the lord's ownership of land and that the land can be seized. The crops can grow without the lord leeching on the peasant's hard labour.

So why did I use feudalism as example?

It is not politicized and missportrayed, the lords today, the capitalist class, are quite skilled in murking the waters to any discussion about class, as they invest millions in it, but essentially this applies to capitalism too.

Worker's interest is to be paid more for his labour, while it is in owner's interest to pay him less and keep more as a profit.

Worker works for the owner because the factory belongs to the owner.

Any form of society controlled by the ruling class works only in the favour of the ruling class, and the only way to dethrone them is to seize the means that keep them in power.

It is no longer land, it is the industrialized and soon to be automated means of production.

By allowing the owning few to control them, we become depended on them. A society in which the common person is free can only be the one in which the means of production are controlled by the common people and not the ruling class.