the association of Marx’s ideas with the premature Bolshevik coup d’etat (‘revolution’) of 1917 has obscured (or rather foreshortened) our perception of the sort of timescales Marx was probably thinking of.

i suspect he also foresaw that the technological progress which is the engine of increasing productivity would inevitably create a vanguard ‘proletariat’ which was perhaps no numerically large, but intellectually sophisticated and in the possession of powerful bargaining chips.

so (at least to my imaginary Marx)just as national cultures and their ruling elites are gradually dissolved by globalisation, at some future stage what is now beginning to be called the New World Order will itself become the chief obstacle to further development and sooner or later be swept aside by the relentless tsunami of history.

i doubt if the barons and bishops who had rule over English life eight hundred years ago were any less cruel and corrupt than their modern-day counterparts.

yet today a high percentage of people can read, even if the only current use they make of this remarkable cultural tool is to enrich the moguls of the gutter press in return for having their minds filled with pernicious rubbish.

it is true as you say that the exploiter will seek to nurture the seeds of dissension. but i am not so sure that he should be held responsible for the weaknesses in human nature he takes advantage of.