Has Anything Ever Really Changed?

So, one of the things I often think about is the idea of social change. I've had to think a lot about the big classical theorists lately: Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Within each of these sits a theory of how society changes, how best to study, where we're going, and if we're totally screwed. In the long and the short of things, only Marx thinks that we're not fucked.

The thing with Marx is, that he was a hell of a guy. I'm in no way shape or form a Marxist, but he had himself a good set of useful ideas with regard to where we're going; only, he didn't talk about how we'd get there.

For Marx, the idea of where we're going is mostly based in the mode and method of labor. Our labor, our ability to create, is something that separates from animals. Our ability to picture something in our minds and inevitably create that thing is an amazing thought. From the first time this was done, we've constantly tried to make the next version better, the next version faster, or, these days, cheaper. 

Marx talked a lot about a revolution. Where the workers would suddenly overthrow the owners and we all ended up in some sort of strange world. From the cold war, we figure this world is withough money. But really, in the long and the short, a shift in production will unlock the worker from their cage and create the social conditions necessary for Marx's communism to take place. 

So many theories have been put forth about the conditions in which this will occur. Further, most people look at the failed Soviet State to show the absolution within communism for failure. Human Nature is greed, they say, we cannot exist without money. 

But when you get down to it, something, somewhere, will change. This change, like all change, will cascade into a series of changes. Those will result in a paradigm shift. All of this, like all of sociology, social theory, and trend following, is a difficult thing to grasp.

To me, Marx's social change, the mode to communism, hasn't occured yet. The need for capitalism, for capitalists, to flourish is still very strong and probably will be for some time. For Marx, Marx believed we were a perfectable being. Humanity can become perfect. It's this hope that keeps me going. I believe that this social change will come when all of humanity can just take a step back from the furious technological change that exists, blinders off, and instead focus on the inequality the system that produced this amazing technology will produce.

I mean, let's face it, probably the single most important times in our country's history were, 1776, the emancipation proclimation, and the 1965 Equal Rights Act. In 200 years, we see a series of slow social change leading to ever so slight social change. Behind that, we see an amazing array of technological change. These changes lead to a different type of world, a more complicated world. This open door will only lead to something new. When that comes, will that start all of this?

I only hope that I am alive so I can find out.