th the organization of society. He sees that the majority of society, that is, the proletariat, exist in sub-human conditions. Marx also sees that the bourgeoisie has a disproportionate abundance of property and power, and that because of what they are, they abuse it. He writes of how the current situation with the bourgeoisie and proletariat developed. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (Marx 41). There have always been struggles between two classes, an upper and lower class. However, Marx speaks of the current order saying, "It [bourgeois] has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat" (Marx 42). The very nature of the bourgeoisie causes it to grow in size and power while the proletariat shrinks. Therefore the rift between the two is increased. Marx goes on to describe how this situation came about, with the industrial revolution and other factors. Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, navigation, and communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange (Heilbroner 56). With these thoughts in mind, a...
