As I sit on this rock, Pilsner in hand, I ponder...
The more I learn about Marxist theories, the more the old man appeals to me. This week in the class readings, Betty White gives an overview of the Classical Marxist view on Ideology. Though, this is a basic concept of the reading, we all know how important the foundation of our knowledge is. So this week for my blog, I will put the theory in my own words and welcome my peers to comment on or correct me.
Marx sees "Ideology" as a type of False Conciousness. The ruling class produces Ideology as a normalized and historic mass culture. The opressed groups adopt the opressors Ideology as thier own and therefore end up actually participating in thier own opression. The opressed start acting out discourses like "working hard will get you ahead" and "poor people are lazy". We spoke in class about why the opressed groups are so eager to take on an opressive ideology but I wasn't really satisfied with anything we came up with. I guess this question really goes deeper than just in the context of Marxism, for example why do people believe anythingthey're told at all?
Sometimes I feel like all this stuff is just one big conspiracy theory. Like there are actually people in a room producing discourses just to take advantage of and fuck people up. All the opression and horrible things in the world seem so intentional, and they are to some point. But I think it's just a huge build-up of fuck-ups that people see working to thier benefit so they don't do anything to change it. And it just gets worse and worse. Things never work out by themselves, especially if you just leave them alone. That's another reason why I think feminism is so important. I'm just one little person, but i think that just me even disagreeing with something or someone is powerful in itself.
2 comments:
I think the idea of the "American Dream" is such a strong ideology that would rather choose to accept it than see how oppressive the situation really is. I don't think there are a bunch of fat cats sitting in a room plotting how to keep the small man/woman down, but I do see the fat cats sitting in their boardroom contemplating how to sell sell sell or make money their own benefit. The false consciousness people suffer from also results from apathy and the idea of one itty bitty person couldn't make a difference in this big bad world. Also everyone is overworked and tired if you are part of the masses trying to make ends meet. I think depending on where/how often people are told something they will believe it. All it takes is a little repetition and someone with a little authority to tell you "that's just the way it is ..." and I think you will have a small demographic of people believing it.
I really enjoyed your rant and I have to agree that the world can look pretty unimpressive at times! However, I have to disagree that the oppressed are "eager" to participate in their own oppression. To me, Marx's theory of "false consciousness" is a product of dominant discourses which are internalized and normalized (through repitition) by everyone, including the oppressed (or 'working class). These discources produce a, every changing, set of false needs which we feel will make us happier or better people. Thus through our internalization of these discourses we are (often)unaware of our own participation and perpetuation of the very system which is the cause of our oppression. This false consciousness also works to serve an economic gain because we are constantly working towards this, consatantly changing, ideal thorugh the purchasing of goods. However, the ideal can never be met but we keep buying a lot of pointless, useless crap!
-Sare
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