forces and the two classes of society representing them, for social dominion, force as well as persuasion is usually used, the manner and proportion of their use being determined by local influences. The established opinion, whether born of interest (class-interest) or received by tradition exerts a powerful influence on society as a whole, as already stated, until the new economic forces become strong enough to formulate their own set of opinions, their own "ideology," and inculcate them into the minds of men. The new ideas formulate slowly, and make converts even more so. But when the time has come, society has become sufficiently revolutionized economically, these ideas become a revolutionary factor in themselves and help destroy the old order of things. Not only is the class whose interests lie in the economic changes which gave birth to these ideas fired by these ideas to such an extent that it often forgets those economic interests themselves and is carried away by the ideas alone, but neutral classes of society and even people whose interests lie in the opposite direction are carried away by the new ideas and enter the lists for the new order of things. And this for the reason that the new ideas are always the reflection of the economic changes which lie along the progress of society as a whole.
New ideas, therefore, are always the result of new economic conditions, produced sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly; but they always have an important place in the struggle of the classes for the progress of human society, for each new class fights for society as well as for itself. They truly characterize the social forces engaged in the struggle.
