Societies only rise or fall when material conditions make it possible

Evidence

We can’t be materialists in that way any longer. But I do think that we are still required to think about the way in which ideological/cultural/discursive practices continue to exist within the determining lines of force of material relations, and the expropriation of nature, which is a very different question. Material conditions are the necessary but not sufficient condition of all historical practice. Of course, we need to think material conditions in their determinate discursive form, not as a fixed absolute. I think the discursive position is often in danger of losing its reference to material practice and historical conditions. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 747 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

It is unfashionable to say this, in post-Marxist times, but it is true: if you want to understand what happened in the Revolution and why, it is better to keep your eye on fluctuating bread prices, rather than fluctuating hemlines. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 716 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Late-arriving societies could not repeat England’s growth but imitated it as an abstract state — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 616; Society’s development cannot be explained by physical laws of quantity.; Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing (+10 more)

Related

• Societies only undertake tasks whose material conditions are maturing (similarity 0.89)
• Material conditions condition but never fully determine historical practice. (similarity 0.86)
• Material conditions are necessary but not sufficient for all historical practice. (similarity 0.85)
• Material conditions explain the Revolution better than its iconography (similarity 0.84)
• Revolutionary phases produce popular materialism while traditional classes favor philosophies of spirit (similarity 0.81)
• Historical change arrives only when material conditions are already ripe (similarity 0.79)
• Nature cannot anchor materialism because social and cultural structures now overdetermine the natural. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Material conditions are necessary but not sufficient for all historical practice. #qualifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 747
• Historical materialism requires retaining economic determination without economic reductionism #expands (0.82)
• Material conditions explain the Revolution better than its iconography #exemplifies (0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 716
• Traditional societies and structures can collapse under external pressures #qualifies (0.75)
• Working-class culture emerges from its material conditions combined with class struggle #expands (0.75)