Feudal society was dissolved into its basic element, man; but into egoistic man who was its real foundation.
Man in this aspect, the member of civil society, is now the foundation and presupposition of the political state. He is recognized as such in the rights of man.
But the liberty of egoistic man, and the recognition of this liberty, is rather the recognition of the frenzied movement of the cultural and material elements which form the content of his life.
Thus man was not liberated from religion; he received religious liberty. He was not liberated from property; he received the liberty to own property. He was not liberated from the egoism of business; he received the liberty to engage in business.
[...]
The political revolution dissolves civil society into its elements without revolutionizing these elements themselves or subjecting them to criticism.
—Karl Marx, The Jewish Question
(from the Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd edition,
Robert C. Tucker)
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