Proletariat
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The truth is that what we call Capitalism ought to be called Proletarianism. The point of it is not that some people have capital, but that most people only have wages because they do not have capital. I have made an heroic effort in my time to walk about the world always saying Proletarianism instead of Capitalism. But my path has been a thorny one of troubles and misunderstandings. I find that when I criticize the Duke of Northumberland for his Proletarianism, my meaning does not get home." --The Outline of Sanity (1926) by G.K. Chesterton |
Illustration:Liberty Leading the People (1831, detail) by Eugène Delacroix.
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The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class.
See also
- Bourgeoisie
- Blue collar
- Folk culture
- Laborer
- Lower class
- Lumpenproletariat
- Peasantry
- Precariat
- Prole drift
- Prolefeed
- Proles
- Proletarianization
- Proletarian internationalism
- Slavery
- Social Class
- Social class in ancient Rome
- Working class
- Wage slavery
