Eric, Pre-Class, Marx

In the excerpt we read from A contribution to the critique of Political Economy Marx said that "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness."
This is a nice little idea and it is easy to imagine how Marx used this idea to develop his other ideas. As a tool to examine society, this idea seems to be correct: a person's worldview is determined by their place in society, their wealth, and their experiences.
However, this idea seems to forbid the phenomenon of rapid social change without some hypothetical 'blank-slate.' . This is something Marxist revolutionaries have discovered, much to their dismay. One cannot simply take a dissatisfied proletariat and change them overnight into a utopian society with no rulers. The idea of subjugation is so ingrained into their beings that, as soon as an oppressor is removed, they ache for a new one. They are so used to being told what to do, they are lost without someone to do that.
The presence of any significant number of persons socially conditioned to a certain idea, prevents the formation of a new incarnation of society free of that idea.