My history teacher says “geography is destiny” and made us watch guns germs and steel. I think bad empanada said this narrative promotes a lack of remorse for colonization because it’s characterized as inevitable. He didn’t explain why it was wrong though iirc. My teacher (who likes orwell) says it’s just material conditions. It could be argued that geography is created the original conditions that led to class society before class forced largely took over, though this could be taken to the extent of class being secondary. Anyone know about this?
I’ll jump in here if you don’t mind. I think by ‘fluid’ Ronin is referring to the fact that dialectics is the study of change and relations and that every relation is constantly changing. In that sense, everything is historically contingent i.e. fluid. Although the relative fluidity of e.g. mountains or planets is something else and not always the most useful descriptor.
I read the comment as meaning that class is fluid in the sense that it changes with developments in the mode (and means) of production, relations to nature, and mental conceptions.
Class is also fluid in the sense that anyone’s class can change alongside their own relation to the means of production.
As for being redefined, it depends on how generous of an interpretation you give the phrase. It could mean ‘class now refers to working class/middle class/upper class and the ability to buy avocados’. But I would give it a more favourable reading in light of the first half of the sentence.
I read it as putting emphasis on the fluidity as opposed to the static way that bourgeois treat class. Not ‘redefined’ in the sense that class-as-concept is redefined. But in the sense that the ‘ruling’ class was once feudal lords and is now the haute bourgeois, and the working class was once peasants, slaves, and a handful of proles and is now mostly proles, a handful of peasants, far too many slaves, and far too many labour aristocrats. And, in addition, the way that even Marxists have refined their class categories to explain differences between the global south and north. This is all redefinitional and Marxist.
I also think Ronin is right about equality. It’s a useful way of insisting on class struggle. Yes, there’s a liberal way of interpreting the claim, but I get a different conclusion with a more favourable reading, assuming a Marxist intent. Class hierarchy and composition has changed because a ruled class has organised to take power from a ruling class. That seems like equality is a driving force to me. We just haven’t completed the development, yet, which is where socialists and communists come in.
I agree with all that, I just think saying the “concept” is fluid is a poor choice of words that suggests idealism.