Ideology is a key aspect of literal writings and cultures. In the present day, the term ideology is comprehended and deeply rooted in the works of Karl Marx and his fellow socialist Friedrich Engels. Marx and Engels state that the notion of the ruling class is present in every era. The two indicate that the class that has the techniques of substance production at its exposure also has the power over the techniques of psychological production. The ideas of the ruling class, therefore, are the ideology of the given society. The purpose of ideology would therefore be the constant means of production applied with a view of ensuring the continued supremacy of the ruling class. In this case, ideology attains this by distorting the truth, while the difference and rise of social classes are manmade and serve only the wants of a financial system whereby the notion of ideology makes it seem normal. This makes the lower classes accept alienation which they would easily fight or revolt.
The production of notion is initially interwoven with material activities and man’s interaction with it and the conceiving of the mental association of men appears during this stage as the direct result of their material activities. This pertains to mental production as uttered in the language of religion, politics, and many more. Men are makers of their ideas as they are trained by the development of their creative forces and the relation corresponding to them. In all ideology, men and their circumstances emerge inverted like in a camera that is obscured. This occurrence comes about from their past life processes as the inversion of objects does from their physical life processes (Kellner & Durham, 2006).
In their writing, Marx and Engels distinguish two different classes, which is the class that is the material force of the society and is at the same time the class that has the earnings of substantial production at its disposal. The other class is the one that does not have the means of production and is subject to those who have. They add that the ruling ideas come about with major material relationships called ideas that portray previous thoughts. They insist human beings are naturally produced and always have to produce their means of survival to satisfy their needs. The fulfillment of wants brings about the rise of other new wants of both social and material kinds. This in turn gives rise to societies that correspond to the state of growth of human industrious forces. Material needs determine the kind of social life one leads. This brings the explanation of societies from material creation to social forms and lastly to forms of self-realization. As ways of material creation develop, economic structures grow and fall and therefore socialism becomes a reality once the workers’ plight and awareness of a substitute motivate them to revolt.
The reality is therefore that distinct persons who are productively active in a detailed way enter into specific social and political relations. Social structures and states are progressively developing out of definite individuals’ life processes not as they might appear in their imagination but as they are. This is because as they function they create materially while laboring under material limits, assumptions, and environment independent of their force (Kellner & Durham, 2006).
The ruling ideas are the principal expressions of the central material associations that are understood as societal ideas. The connections that make one class rule over another are the notions of its supremacy. The people who constitute the ruling class have a realization of some sort and are thus able to reason. Therefore, they reign as a class and establish the degree and compass of an era. They perform this in a complete range hence ruling as philosophers, as sources of ideas, controllers of the production, and givers of ideas of their age. Their ideas are thus the regulating notions of this era. For instance, in an era where nations of royal supremacy, dominance, and bourgeoisie are competing for mastery, and where this mastery is communal, the doctrine of rule separation confirms to be a central idea and is articulated as an everlasting law.
The Marxist concept of ideology can aid in the analysis of mass media and popular culture. This can be elaborated to adjust to the changes that our society went through during the 18th century. An example is when wealthier members of the French society overthrew the aristocratic government; this made it possible for the working class to raise their well beings above the proletariat. In doing so, the working class now joined the bourgeois class creating the same problem as before. The supposition of a social partition into a ruling division that manages the ways of production can aid in the analysis of mass media and popular culture. The presence of a class that is compelled to trade on its labor to survive now no longer has to work. Marx recommended alternative classifications other than communal classification in which hierarchical rule frameworks are functioning. These include sex, race, civilization, and nationality. In these concepts, ideology functions as a comparison to Marx’s theories to sustain the existing authority associations such as a patriarchal community (Kellner & Durham, 2006).
Reference
Kellner, M. & Durham, G. (2006). Media and Cultural Studies. Malden (MA): Blackwell.