Concept of Class and Its Usage

In observing the economic base for and the seeming inevitability of Marx & Engels view of the natural subsidence of capitalism into communism, the divisions of class figure prominently into the debate. The writings of Marx and Engels do not shy from using the concept of class to illustrate and and elaborate Materialist principles. Marx identifies wage-laborers, capitalists, and landowners as the essential classes which formed out of the division of labor and the divorce of capital from labor. Marx's argument depends upon the use of class divisions and the requisite generality with which the actions and ways of life of many individuals are quickly and cleanly characterized. One is led to question these labels, though, as the divisions which are used to forward the Materialist view of human interaction are themselves by-products of Marx's theoretical framework. The concept and division of class is used with such finality in Materialist writings that one must step back and question the exact nature of the term. Considering the movements that Materialism and Marxism have been used to forward in the past, Thompson identifies a very real danger in class-consciousness. The arguments using class which Materialism imparts use clearly defined language about the parts of Industrial society and imparts a sense the members of a class are closely related and cohesive.
I am inclined to agree with Thompson when he asserts that the divisions of class have a sense of being and existence owing to their own creation and use. For this reason it is important to impress the use of class as a defining as well as dividing tool. This is to say that using class as a division tool can serve to enforce vagaries about whole groups of people while at the same time imparting characteristics and meanings on those groups. In actuality, those concepts about class can go a long way in the creation and division of groups themselves. I think Marx's arguments would be more easily understood if the interactions of classes were described as individuals relative to one another, rather than groups of interests jockeying for primacy.