Marxism in more depth

Today we will cover

• False consciousness

• Commodity fetishism

• Ideological state apparatus

• Base superstructures

What we know already…

• Dominant classes create dominant ideology• This is then seen by lower classes as natural• Lower classes cant better themselves• State & media spread this ideology• Marxism is an ideology• The means of production help keep this ideology

in place• Class consciousness as ideological factor

False Consciousness

• Class consciousness should lead to revolution – why didn’t it?

• Did the proletariat not get what was happening?

• Do working class today not understand the world they live in?

• Do we suffer a false consciousness?

Fredrich Engels & False Consciousness

• Remember dominant ideology – is it in place today?

• Capitalism misleads people – we don’t understand how it works with regards to power, class and ideology

• We accept the status quo • Ideology legitimises things in

favour of ruling classes• We are unaware of exploitation –

ideology as feature of consciousness

Commodity Fetishism as an example

• Commodities are inherently valuable NOT valued through associated labour

• Human labour becomes a commodity which is swappable for others

• Links to free market and supply and demand

• Commodities then have equal or more power than people

Base-superstructure

• Basic needs of society determine its secondary needs

I.e. Capitalism needs industry, economy etc so ideology and political and education etc exist because of and for capitalism

Why would we favour the base-superstructure over secondary ones?

Ideological State Apparatus

• Louis Althusser had slightly different ideas which rejected rule via economics & saw ideology itself as shaping consciousness

• Class rule is sustained by 2 types of power

1. Repressive state apparatus (army, police, law courts etc)

2. Ideological state apparatus (education, church, family, media)

• ISA’s holds power at ideological level

How? • Produces imaginary relationships to power

structures• Naturalises assumptions and ideas

• Althuser says ideology ‘hails us’ – it creates us as subjects. We are the effect of ISA’s but makes us think we have power over them

But

• If living a false consciousness, would we ever really know?

• If ideology is mix of shared set of beliefs and focus repression, how can we separate and create true consciousness?

• Is labour value always equal to commodity value? Does everyone operate in that system nowadays?

Activity

• Pick a modern media institution (fox, Viacom, Time Warner etc)

• Research the types of content they produce• Do they exist as an ISA, that is do they exist to

perpetuate the ideological injustices? • How are oppositional voices represented?• Provide mini case study on your blogs• Try to think about everything we learnt today• We can continue for the first 30 mins of next class