Societies only pose problems they can solve, and orders die only when superseded.

Evidence

1. Mankind only poses for itself such tasks as it can resolve; … the task itself only arises when the material conditions for its resolution already exist or at least are in the process of formation. … 2. A social order does not perish until all the productive forces for which it still has room have been developed and new and higher relations of production have taken their place, and until the material conditions of the new relations have grown up within the womb of the old society. Only on this basis can all mechanicism and every trace of the superstitiously “miraculous” be eliminated, and it is on this basis that the problem of the formation of active political groups, and, in the last analysis, even the problem of the historical function of great personalities must be posed. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1538

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s two ground rules for historical materialism, stated as axioms that anchor his whole anti-mechanistic, anti-miraculous method.
• XREF: These two propositions are the base that the Islamophobia corpus draws on whenever it insists social orders are historically contingent and changeable rather than natural or permanent. — connects to: Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing; Social orders only die after their productive forces have fully developed; Societies only rise or fall when material conditions make it possible (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing #corroborates (0.90)
• Social orders only die after their productive forces have fully developed #corroborates (0.85)
• Social orders collapse only after their productive forces are exhausted #corroborates (0.85)
• Societies only rise or fall when material conditions make it possible #corroborates (0.80)
• Ideas can only be dissolved by overturning material social relations, not criticism. #expands (0.75)