1. from Engels' Origins of the Family:
>With this as its basic constitution, civilization achieved things
of which gentile society was not even remotely capable. But it
achieved them by setting in motion the lowest instincts and passions
in man and developing them at the expense of all his other abilities.
>From its first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of
civilization; wealth and again wealth and once more wealth, wealth,
not of society, but of the single scurvy individual - here was its
one and final aim. If at the same time the progressive development of
science and a repeated flowering of supreme art dropped into its lap,
it was only because without them modern wealth could not have
completely realized its achievements.
Since civilization is founded on the exploitation of one class by
another class, its whole development proceeds in a constant
contradiction. Every step forward in production is at the same time a
step backwards in the position of the oppressed class, that is, of
the great majority. Whatever benefits some necessarily injures the
others; every fresh emancipation of one class is necessarily a new
oppression for another class. The most striking proof of this is
provided by the introduction of machinery, the effects of which are
now known to the whole world. And if among the barbarians, as we saw,
the distinction between rights and duties could hardly be drawn,
civilization makes the difference and antagonism between them clear
even to the dullest intelligence by giving one class practically all
the rights and the other class practically all the duties.