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Charlie <charles1...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: "that family forms among the exploiters were important to them for dividing the riches among themselves." Exactly. This is the essential problem with academic approaches to the problem. The standards of the top are taken as universal standards. What we do have documented about life in the lower classes indicates a great deal more complexity and flexibility on all these questions. The top-down approach always misreads the evidence or simply fails to read what contradicts it. Marxists acknowledge that the ruling values of any society tend to be those of the society's ruling class, but we also see a vital class difference. Again, it's not as though working class people are universally more enlightened. It's just that the absence of those preoccupations with property at the top of society permit a greater diversity of views and values. And this in turn, tends to create a greater tolerance among the people, though they're seldom given credit for this. ML ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
