Marxism's Missing Link

Formalizing the substrate-base-superstructure triad

Introduction

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

- TS Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1915

In a past essay, I postulated that there is a layer beneath the traditional base-superstructure model of society as described by Marx and formalized by Gramsci. This addition would be known as the “substrate,” and was described vaguely as the cumulative adaptations of humanity, both biological and behavioral. For the uninitiated, the original dyadic model described the “base” as the mode of production of a given economy—how societies organize themselves to extract, harvest, process, and distribute the goods which they rely upon for survival. The “superstructure” is the collection of cultural, legal, and ideological artifacts which emerge from the base—how families form, how people conceive of themselves and others, what language is spoken, what religion is practiced (if any), how existing laws are applied or enf…