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Marx and Lenin's conception of the state was as machinery designed to aid the oppression of one class at the behest of another. Notions within our legal and jus
by droptablemain 5y ago
Marx and Lenin's conception of the state was as machinery designed to aid the oppression of one class at the behest of another. Notions within our legal and justice system in the U.S. make much more sense viewed through this lens -- that the U.S. and most so-called liberal democracies are "dictatorships of the bourgeoisie."
- all2 5y agoThey can be "dictatorships of the bourgeoisie", but once upon a time in the US it wasn't so much that way. And maybe I'm romanticizing things. I do know that our tomes of tax law didn't exist 200 years ago, and financial controls and centralized currency also didn't exist 200 years ago. Tools arise when the inventive require them. Those same tools become weapons of oppression when the right (wrong?) people start to use them for their own advantage.
- mrguyorama 5y agoThe united states was literally born to be a useful thing for rich white dudes. That's why "by the people, for the people" doesn't mean women or black people or people without enough land. The founders didn't want normal people to have power, and everything they wrote was so the people in power could keep that power. The constitutional convention was literally a room full of powerful people agreeing on what compromises would keep them happy
- 8note 5y ago200 years ago, only the bourgeoisie could vote.