Le pas au-delà

Considered as the Substance of the Content of Marx's conception of history, the notion of "class struggle" is of an entirely different order from Proudhon's notion of "heroism." Whatever the merits of this notion when considered as an explanatory principle of a determinate set of historical events, there is nothing ideological about it at all. This is indicated by the fact that the reality of class struggle is presumed by all historians of every conceivable kind of political or ideological orientation. Beyond that, this notion provides for the stipulation of a principle by which to admit the reality of heroic actions on the part of individuals and groups and at the same tune discriminate between genuinely heroic achievements and those that only appear to be so. For unlike a notion of heroism that identifies it with a kind of spiritual superiority of one person over all others, the notion of class struggle links heroism, not with and ideal or individual success in a particular line of endeavor, but rather with the global effort of humanity to achieve the conditions of freedom from both natural necessity and social division.