Ancient Rome and Fuedal Europe

[MD575151@xxxxxxx]

List,

    On the topic of class struggle Engels and Marx write;

     "...a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary
re-constitution of society at              large, or in the common ruin of
the contending classes."
                                              ---1848 Manifesto of the
Communist Party

    When was this "common ruin of the contending classes" that the authors
refer to?
     I have always had an interest in Roman history.  I am often
contemplating how the course of history would have been shaped it the Roman
culture never fell.  Did it have to?  Did the Roman slave state give way to
the Fuedal society as a historical process of evolution, or was this the
"common ruin of the contending classes"?  It is hard for me to accept that
fuedalism contributed much to the world.  When fuedalism gave way to
capitalism that was definately a progression.  Capitalism fulfilled many
needed roles.  It revolutionized production, and at the same time
exapropriated the fuedal peasants, creating wage-laborers.  What did the
"dark ages" possably contribute to society's progression?  What class, if
any, came out of the slave state epoch as champion?
     This idea of a "common ruin" is new to me.  I have always taken for
granted that all society gave way to a more complete society.  This possible
ruin of both classes takes away a sense of sureness of the victory of the
proletariat.  It is impossable for the bourgeoisie to survive, but will the
proletariat necessaraly be the one to take over?  Though I am confident that
the proletariat will eventually stand at the head of the state, creating the
conditions for it's withering away, the common ruin idea is an
intrigueing(sp) one.

    from,
        ---Mike Dean


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