Criticism
Non-Marxists have criticized class consciousness on a variety of grounds.
Economist Ludwig Von Mises argued that “Marx confus the notions of caste and class.” Mises allowed that class consciousness, and the associated class struggle, were valid concepts in some circumstances where rigid social castes exist; e.g., when slavery is legal, and slaves thus share a common motive for ending their disadvantaged status relative to other castes. “But no such conflicts are present in a society in which all citizens are equal before the law,” according to Mises. “No logical objection can be advanced against distinguishing various classes among the members of such a society. Any classification is logically permissible, however arbitrarily the mark of distinction may be chosen. But it is nonsensical to classify the members of a capitalistic society according to their position in the framework of the social division of labor and then to identify these classes with the castes of a status society.”
Philosopher Leszek Kołakowski argued that the “theory of class consciousness is false” and that attempts by Marxist–Lenninists to advance the concept of class consciousness necessarily led to totalitarianism.
Sociologist Ernest van den Haag has argued:
| “ | One way is to say that "objectively" people have common class interests and should act according to the class struggle pattern — but that they are not always "class conscious". They suffer from "false consciousness". But this is (a) not true; nor would it (b) help much if it were. a) There often are conflicts among objective economic interests within a Marxian class — e.g. among workers. Conflicts occur over migration, international trade, religion or race. And workers often have objective interests in common with capitalists and in conflict with the interests of other groups of workers. Class membership is no more and possibly less decisive than say race membership in determining one's political views. If you insist on the importance of race, you may persuade people to act according to their "racial interests" for a while — as the Nazis did. If you convince people that they should act according to what you tell them are your class interests, they might. The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling. But the action comes from race or class propaganda — not from race or class as objective facts. b) Further if we assume that classes are as important as Marx thought but that people do not act accordingly, because not having read Marx, they are not class conscious – if "class consciousness" becomes independent of class membership — and if class membership is neither sufficient nor necessary to bring the expected class behaviour, then social classes become one of many groups that influence man's action on some occasions. This would be a correct theory. But the distinctive point of Marxian theory is that class membership is decisive in determining most and particularly political actions. This is patently wrong. | ” |
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