>Bill Bartlett wrote:
>>
>> At 8:46 PM -0700 24/10/07, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>>
>> >In fact the above dream, got me to suspecting that there might have
>> >always been enough basics to go around.
>>
>> No, if that was so then the class system wouldn't have occurred to anyone.
>
>It never did occur to anyone until it had been in existence for a few
>thousand years.
No, that doesn't make any sense. It might not have occurred to anyone to call it a class system for awhile, but when it first occurred to a tribe to enslave captives from another tribe and set them to work in the fields, they had invented the class system. It wouldn't have occurred to them to put enslaved captives to work in their fields unless they could see that the potential existed to produce more extra food than the slaves would eat obviously and of course they would need to be fed until the new crops would be harvested, but probably the captives' land and existing crops had been captured with them.
> Moreover, there could not be a class system until a
>SURPLUS appeared.
I don't understand why, would you mind explaining your reasoning.
> There had always been "enough," but about 10 thousand
>years ago surpluses began to appear and the move towards class society
>began. Only _huge_ surpluses could generate a full fledged ruling class
>distinct from 'the rest.' That happened around 5000 years ago.
Not necessarily. The whole point of a class system is that it eliminates the necessity for a society to produce enough to sustain the entire population at a high level. Of course if every member of society is reduced to a starvation diet, over a sustained period, then that society will collapse. But The class system allows a society that has only the material conditions necessary for such a starvation diet to actually maintain a tiny percentage of the population at a higher level, a level that affords this elite the luxury of sufficient calories to use their brains and even the leisure to invent ways to improve their material conditions.
I believe that's what actually happened, rather than a happy, well-fed and class-less society suddenly allowing itself to be enslaved by a tiny minority.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas