A number of nineteenth century thinkers were concerned with the existing conditions and developed different ideas of bringing about change. For example, Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism addresses the role of religion in developing a capitalist mode of thinking. In Hard Times, Dickens highlights the plight of England's poor and the role of industrialism in perpetuating poverty. Lastly, in The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels develop an alternative framework to capitalism that is founded on the abolishment of private property and the creation of a commonwealth society.

Traditionally, capitalism has been associated with self-regulated individualism, and socialism, with dialectical ev

Unlike Durkheim, who believed that society existed before the individual (and who therefore did not seem to think that the individual can do much to change society), Marx, Weber and Dickens all recognized the importance of individualism in creating and changing societies. However, they each viewed individualism as serving different ends. Marx's writing, for instance, argued that the role of individualism was to develop a mentality that would cause people to recognize, and unite towards a common interest. In the long run, this would result in the creation of a new society that would value collectiveness over individuality. For Marx, therefore, individualism was a tool of bringing about a new mentality.

While Dickens values individualism, he also criticizes it when it is pushed to the extreme. This is illustrated through the character of Bounderby, who embodies the ultimate value of capitalism by proclaiming himself to be a "self-made man" (for example Dickens 84). As we discover later, he is not a self-made man after all. This calls into question the capitalist value of social mobility. Dickens suggests that perhaps the Hands cannot overcome poverty entirely on their own. Through this, he shows that extreme individualism is not reliable and accelerates the downfall of society.

As these writings show, society is ultimately driven by individual thinking. Both capitalism and socialism are grounded in an ideological framework and need this framework in order to function. This framework, in turn, is developed by human thinkers. At our present stage of capitalism, we need the values of individualism in order for the society to function. These values are important until we reach Marx's last stage, the stage of collective consciousness that will lead us to communism. However, in order to reach this stage, we still need individualism.

Weber also shows that ideology has to be naturalized in order to be accepted by the people. For instance, he points out that in Catholic Florence of the 14th and 15th centuries, the capitalists recognized the incompatibility of the pursuit of wealth with their religion, which led to the practice of paying "conscience money". Weber calls this "economic rationalization" (Weber 76). He shows that capitalism's goal of the pursuit of wealth is really in conflict with Christianity's teaching, but that the Protestant Ethic manages to justify it. According to Weber: "the capitalistic economy of the present day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live. It forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to capitalistic rules of action" (Weber 51).

Marx viewed individualism as weakening the social structure. On the one hand, he believed that communism is being delayed because of the competition among workers (Marx and Engels 7). On the other hand, divisions among the bourgeoisie were what will help overthrow capitalism. Here, Marx cites the example of the passage of the ten-hours' bill in England (Marx and Engels 8).

Marx believed that because capitalism would continue to exploit people and worsen their living conditions, the proletarian would grow, thus increasing the workers' "class consciousness". He believed that people would come

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