ABSTRACT
In this book up to now we have been through the definition of the capitalist social formation. This is effectuated in such a way that the three basic classes of this formation are presented as “character masks” of social actors and activities. For historico-geografical reasons the landowning class is the one which presents the most complicated picture, but it is also the one where the use of that mask concept is immediately the most fruitful. The reason for this is that a single concept that encloses the greatest circuit of variations shows all the more distinctly how individuals, no matter their differences, are not responsible for the social relations in which they engage, so long as society in general has an alienated form. Their class interests take on anonymous forms, and they act according to iron laws and rules – which does not diminish their specific felt or experienced freedom of action.
