Class struggle is misdirection

Those framing the inequality in societies as a class struggle are still framing people as economic entities.

Class struggles are generally framed by those representing working classes, such as socialists, as a need to get power back from the ruling class. While this is largely true, such framing is very simplistic and doesn't really address the root causes of the inequality, and thus their solutions are narrowly focusing purely on peoples' economic value and power rather than the broader value of their lives. This is because the advocates' core values are about economics.

The real problem with such framing is that it relegates people to being workers, as if that is the ultimate defining characteristic of who they are advocating for. Such a rigid identity imposition severely limits the aspirations of people. This is perhaps why those who became so-called middle class lost interest in socialism. While such a group may have been caught up in the overwhelming selfishness propaganda that drives societies these days, they have moved beyond considering themselves workers because they know they can have more agency than as a chattel of some boss class.

If the end goal is true freedom to define our own lives, then identification as part of some group is just a temporary ploy to get there. While many who call themselves middle-class are technically still workers by the traditional nomenclature, the end promise of supposedly winning the class struggle is to be a worker while a boss still calls the shots. That is not a win for many these days, but a sentence. The whole class struggle narrative is that we are either a worker or a boss, not a free agent that can choose a balance that suits them better.

Socialism and communism were born in the middle of the industrial revolution when 80% of people worked in factories. The two class view was fairly legitimate as the great majority were poor and the most plausible option to deal with that was to work in a large factory for an overlord boss. Those who follow those political philosophies seem to be stuck in that paradigm looking for the same end result. 80% of people are now in service industries and mostly employed by small businesses. That is a whole other situation with a lot more outcome options.

Thinking as if we are a factory worker among thousands of others doesn't gel with us any more. While many of our aspirations may be flights of fantasy, because the way we think about ourselves has changed, outmoded concepts developed in another time when life options were far more limited won't work. People have been trying to leave the worker identity behind. There will be no working class heroes any more.

The whole idea of class struggle largely relies upon the idea that the societal structures will always be that, and that relies upon that the ruling class are just the way they are, as if we cannot do anything about that than just struggle against them to get a bit more of their pie. It fails to actually address why people really get to be part of the ruling class, which can open the door to how we can change that process, and thus possibly shift the whole power dynamics of societies.

That those who get to be at the upper echelons of societies are generally Dark Triads gives us a chance to thwart their paths to that power. While they generally use proxies like politicians and their corporations to embed their privilege, for those of us in democracies, we can vote for people that don't have paid-for loyalties to those of that pathology but who want more equitable societies and human-based values governing them. We can also stop buying into the world view that relies upon Dark Triads being so privileged, like making our lives less dependent upon what they peddle to us.

While we still think of ourselves as being in a forever struggle with a perpetual elite, we are doomed to maintain the status quo, forever hoping for some of their scraps. We are not some workers battling bosses or the wealthy elite, but free human beings who can cooperate to reduce the ability of those who seek to dominate us from doing so. They are only there because we have believed their propaganda that they are entitled to be there. We must challenge that narrative in our thinking and ween ourselves off it.

There are ways that we can adopt to identify such people before they get to pull societies' levers to their advantage. We don't vote for them or their proxies, and we implement regulations that prevent them getting to abuse the power-multipliers that are corporations. They don't come from nowhere, so there will be plenty of evidence of their nefariousness in their past. We are not powerless, but we have to be willing to change what we expect of life so that we are not limited to what others see us as. We are not just workers, but human beings.