In Chapter 1 it was argued that the Marxist conception of society as a closed and centred totality tends to marginalize and obscure the role of politics with regard to the structuring of capitalist social relations. The disappearance of politics within Marxism is highly problematic, since it leaves social phenomena to be explained in terms of the necessary laws of movement provided by the objective structure of the economy. The belief in such laws might comfort those who have lost the initiative in the struggle for socialism, but it certainly does not help them to regain it. It is important to realize with Gramsci that "it is necessary to be more political, to know how to use the political element, and to be less afraid of using it" (quoted from Buci-Glucksmann, 1981 [1975]: 324). That the Marxist tradition in general has failed to do so is indeed paradoxical, since it has always maintained that its ultimate ambition is not to interpret the world differently, but to change it through revolutionary action (Marx, 1987c [1845]: 158).