CHRISTIANISM: A SUPERNATURALISTIC OTHER-WORLDLY
GOSPEL FOR THE PASSING AGE OF CLASS INEQUALITY
AND ECONOMIC SLAVERY 85
APPENDIX 157
Hitherto, every form of society has been based on the antagonism of
oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a class,
certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at
least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of
serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the
petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to
develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary,
instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and
deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He
becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than
population and wealth. And here it becomes evident that the
bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society,
and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an
over-riding law. It is unfit to rule, because it is incompetent to
assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it
cannot help letting him sink into such a state that it has to feed
him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under
this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer
compatible with society.--Marx and Engels.
COMMUNISM AND CHRISTIANISM
ANALYZED AND CONTRASTED FROM THE MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN POINTS OF VIEW