In the villages the goods produced by the highly skilled craftsmen were never in great demand . Besides , the craftsmen were beginning to feel stifled by feudal exploitation . The peasant – craftsmen had a stimulus to leave the feudal estate and go where they could sell their goods , free from the oppression of their feudal lords . Some peasant – craftsmen simply ran away , others left the village with the permission of their lord , being bound to pay
The crisis of the empire , which first became evident in the socio – economic sphere , soon spread to its ideology as well . The religious and philosophical systems that were prevalent among the ruling class became more and more pessimistic . Thus , the views of the Stoics underwent considerable change : When the Roman Empire was in its prime the contention of Stoicism that one must sacrifice one’s self in the interests lof society helped strengthen the rule of the slave – owners . Now , with the decline of the Roman Empire , it helped spread an attitude of pessimism and hopelessness . The idealist , mystical philosophy known as the system of Plotinus gained popularity in the 3rd century A.D. According to Plotinus , evil and matter were synonymous . He believed that man’s goal was his spiritual merger with an undefined supreme good , imperceptible to the human mind . Literature took on a religious and philosophical colouring , as is apparent in the very popular form of the novel ( for example , The Golden Ass of Apuleius ) . In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. , during the fall of the Roman Empire , the pagan philosophies which were gradually being replaced by Christianity merged with demonology , black magic and astrology . The triumph of the Christian Church was accompanied by the destruction of many pagan monuments of Antiquity . At the same time , in its desire to gain popular support , Christianity adopted many pagan ways .
Thus , Christmas was made to coincide with the day on which the Sun god , Mitra , was celebrated . In the eastern provinces , where the cult of the goddesses of fertility ( Isida , Astarta , Cybela ) was widespread , the cult of the Madonna developed . Ils subject matter consisted chiefly of eulogies in honour of Literature catered to the tastes of a narrow circle of courtiers . the various emperors . The overall cultural level dropped sharply during this period .
Political economy is closely connected with the third constituent part of Marxism – the teaching on communism . Political economy shows that in the machine stage of its history capitalism develops social production which no longer corresponds to the private mode of appropriating the products . Capitalism is outliving itself and is gradually becoming a hindrance to social development , as did the slave and feudal systems in their time . Capitalism has to be replaced by a communist system which corresponds to the social nature of production .
On the basis of their analysis of capitalist society Marx and Engels discovered that building a new society is primarily in the interests of the proletariat which must , in one way or another , depending on concrete historical condi tions , overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat . With the aid of the dictator ship of the proletariat the working class will replace the private form of ownership of the means of production by a social form of ownership and , with the support of the broad masses of working people , will gradually build a communist society . The true history of mankind will begin precisely with the building of a communist society because only then will man be able completely to satisfy his material and spiritual needs . In communist society all people will be harmoniously developed and the differences between mental and manual labour , between town and country , etc. , will be eliminated .
Capitalism Society 