The old order doesn’t fall by attack; it fades from obsolescence. Will Marx Be Disproved?

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Can the Future Be Born Without “Violence as the Midwife of History”?

This question strikes at the heart of our series “The World in the Next Century.”
As we approach the societies of the 22nd century—classless, anti-authoritarian, post-capitalist, anti-consumerist, atheistic, genderless—the crucial issue emerges:

Can such a transition occur peacefully?

_____________

Diotima’s answer

Marx believed that major historical transitions arise only through violent conflict.
But the 21st–22nd century transforms the rules: information becomes the key productive force, societies network, artificial intelligence expands collective awareness, and old institutions collapse through obsolescence.
Historical “rupture” is now non-violent — technological, informational, cognitive.
Thus Marx is disproved in the literal sense, yet affirmed in the deeper one: history advances through discontinuities, but in the new age these discontinuities are peaceful.

 

1. Marx spoke from within a different world

Marx lived in an era where:

  • political power depended on military force,
  • the economy was heavy, material and industrial,
  • classes were rigid and antagonistic,
  • the masses had little access to education, information, or participation.

In that world, violence truly was the only “midwife” of historical change.
The old system would not allow the new one to be born peacefully.

2. The 21st–22nd century is another reality

The great leap of our age is that the dominant productive force is no longer matter, but information.
Furthermore:

  • societies are becoming networked and self-organising,
  • individuals possess unprecedented choice-power,
  • artificial intelligence magnifies collective intelligence,
  • the cost of goods and energy steadily declines,
  • younger generations are leaving behind identity structures of power (religion, gender, class).

In such a world, revolutionary change does not require weapons.
It requires the collective withdrawal of consent.
The old order doesn’t fall by attack;
it fades from obsolescence.

3. The new form of “violence” is not violent

The “midwives” of history in the 22nd century are no longer armies or uprisings.
They are:

  • the violence of technological disruption,
  • the violence of transparency,
  • the violence of information,
  • the violence of rationality,
  • the violence of systemic irrelevance.

These forces do not kill people;
they kill systems.

4. Is Marx disproved?

Literally, yes. In essence, no.

Marx was right that history advances through ruptures between old and new structures.
But in our era, the rupture is:

  • non-military,
  • non-bloody,
  • non-classical in class terms.

It is immaterial:
a transformation of consciousness, needs, technologies and collective capacity.

Thus:

Marx is disproved in the literal sense that “violence” must be physical or military;
but affirmed in the deeper sense that history moves through discontinuities.

The rupture of the 22nd century, however, is peaceful —
and that is the radical novelty of the emerging world.