Ideology (SumBlog 2)

Karl Marx believed in ideologies. To simplify, ideologies are belief systems determined by the economic infrastructure of society. They served to justify the existing property relations, and obscure the reality of exploitation. He counted religion, philosophy, law, and literature as ideological since all worked like a distorting mirror.

 

Marx used an analogy called 'camera obscura,' This analogy states that the camera lens is like ideology -  it obscures images. Through ideology we experience the world. An example of this is would be capitalism as equal and free. Ideologies can hide contradictions by a few different ways. First, they can make them appear 'normal'. Second, they can eliminate evidence of contradictions, and lastly by presenting capitalist contradictions as actually issues in human nature. An example of this one would be stereotypes of the unemployed - like saying they are all lazy and don't care enough when in reality that is false.


 In a modern context, Marxists would see the existing values taught in schools as ideological. Equality of opportunity: people cling to this and believe it implicitly, but Marxists see it as an obvious untruth, designed to generate confidence in the status quo and to blame the underclass for not trying hard enough.