Class Struggles versus Evolution of Consciousness

Karl Marx regarded Class Struggles as the main driver for Societal Developments:

"The history of all existing societies so far is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes."

"Die Geschichte aller bisherigen Gesellschaft ist die Geschichte von Klassenkämpfen.

Freier und Sklave, Patrizier und Plebejer, Baron und Leibeigner, Zunftbürger und Gesell, kurz, Unterdrücker und Unterdrückte standen in stetem Gegensatz zu einander, führten einen ununterbrochenen, bald versteckten bald offenen Kampf, einen Kampf, der jedesmal mit einer revolutionären Umgestaltung der ganzen Gesellschaft endete, oder mit dem gemeinsamen Untergang der kämpfenden Klassen."

(Friedrich Engels / Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto / Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei)

This Marxism view is mainly based on the underlying concept of subordination.

Nevertheless, what would happen, if the members of the different classes would realise that there is a fundamental commonality amongst them, a systemic connection between the oppressor and the oppressed? What would happen, if the consciousness would evolve even further, disclosing a complete underlying coherence / oneness?

Such an evolution of consciousness would clearly dissolve the boundaries between classes and hence take away the driver of societal development in Karl Marx definition. Anyhow, there is sufficient reason to believe that reaching an advanced level of consciousness with regard to systemic relationships, coherence and oneness will lead to massive societal developments.

This provides mankind with two principle options to choose from when addressing societal development:

• Continue to facilitate class struggles by widening the gaps, driving towards a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or the common ruin of the contending classes
• Creating a wider consciousness that drives an evolutionary re-constitution of society at large without the risk of common ruin and re-creation of new class struggles.

Evolution of Consciousness can and should be the new driver for Societal Development.