Conflict Theory: The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

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Conflict Theory is a school of thought in sociology that believes societal interactions are caused by scarcities and inequalities. Karl Marx is acknowledged as the founder of Conflict Theory and asserted that every society goes through three stages - feudalism (dominant in medieval Europe, where peasants watched over their lord’s land and labored in exchange for protection), capitalism (a system where means of production are privately owned for profit), and finally, socialism (where the state/public owns the means of production). In Marx’s (and Engels’) Communist Manifesto, the struggles and power inequality under capitalism is exposed. The people of a society are broken down into two basic categories: the bourgeoisie (the group who owns the means of production, and the majority of wealth) and the proletariat (the workers). When The Communist Manifesto was written and Conflict Theory was developed, Marx used Europe - which he identified as being in the capitalist stage- to outline the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. According to Marx, although the …show more content…

Gender is a means of separation that also creates a dichotomy between the two which develops into inequality and, therefore, conflict. The dichotomy in modern western culture goes a little like this: baby boy is born, placed in blue, in shirts that say “little slugger”, grows up playing with legos and warriors, cartoons with superheroes advertised to him, and as he grows older, he is called a wimp if he cries, or shows sensitivity to the world around him. He is taught to be strong and stoic. In contrast, the baby girl is placed in pink, a “little princess” shirt, grows up cooking and dressing dolls, encouraged to wait around for someone to help her, expected to cry and be more complacent than her male counterpart. It is a dichotomy because a sensitive girl who is also a businessperson and a tough as nails stay-at-home dad are not thought to exist. Through

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