[The Immortal Goon]

Having not read a lot of the thread, I'll say briefly a lot of it comes down to a material conception of history. I'll also try to be clear, though I do so at the expense of accuracy.

To put it in its most crude form, you follow the dollar, and he who controls the gold makes the rules - and other cliches. Marriage, for instance, exists as a result of private property. No private property, no need to secure an heir, no need for a steady committed relationship to make sure a potential heir is yours (as a rough, crude example).

The socialist, like the capitalist was before him during the feudal epoch, wants to change the way people relate to the material world around them. Currently you have people with a lot of control over materials; and the vast majority of the people with very little control of the material around them. Thus, you change the forms of society that enforce the power of the few, so that the many can eventually participate.