As discussed in class the concept of ideology is simple, it is seen as a set of ideas and assumptions or premises that aim particularly to reinforce a dominant social order, which can also be seen as the power of a dominant social group. The quote on page 7 in lecture captures this perfectly, “To study ideology is to study how ideas and power intersect.” Ideology is seen as most dominant when there is a set of certain ideas that will particularly catch the interest of an elite group, as it is seemingly always linked with the concept of power. According to Marx and Engels, ideology has the ability to smooth over conflicts and any negative attributes in order to idealize human and social traits including the idea of individuality and competition.
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The first being, the idea of ideology as “false consciousness.” This concept of false consciousness is one of the main ways in which ideology has been theorized or understood in Marxist tradition, the main idea here is that the reality of expectation is entirely hidden to us. False consciousness is something we do not think of in our everyday lives, although there is much history that can be found within every commodity – it is just concealed and hidden to us upon first glance. In saying this, we make many fetishes over our commodities and invest so much into them, while at the same time we are so preoccupied with this that we do not take the time to think about the history of it, such as obsessing over our iPhone but never thinking about the workers who made the phone. The whole concept of false consciousness within ideology is very much seen within capitalist societies, cuasing a distorted view held within our minds about the way the world really works. Many people believe that the perspective of false consciousness does not have much respect for ordinary people, or the working class. For example, as discussed in lecture, the idea of the American Dream may be viewed as false consciousness as not everyone is able to get ahead in society based on his or her class …show more content…
In our neighbouring country, the United States of America, George Bush’s ideas while he was president become a perfect example. With all of the power and elitism he held, he was able to start a war in Iraq and convince the people of America that this was a good idea because they were still livid from the attack on 9/11. This shows George Bush using his power to reinforce principles and ideas people in everyday life would not agree with if it had not been decided by someone with dominance over them. Bush was able to use his dominance over the people to create an ideology that would later have people realizing that they disagreed entirely with the idea of war and Bush’s motives. Ideology seemingly plays a huge role within the media spotlight, through politics, news and movies alike, to persuade viewers and followers to follow along in the footsteps of those in the spotlight because they are “right.” Thus, giving these forms of media the power to create and destroy, as well as persuade everyday people into falling for things they may not actually believe
The first being, the idea of ideology as “false consciousness.” This concept of false consciousness is one of the main ways in which ideology has been theorized or understood in Marxist tradition, the main idea here is that the reality of expectation is entirely hidden to us. False consciousness is something we do not think of in our everyday lives, although there is much history that can be found within every commodity – it is just concealed and hidden to us upon first glance. In saying this, we make many fetishes over our commodities and invest so much into them, while at the same time we are so preoccupied with this that we do not take the time to think about the history of it, such as obsessing over our iPhone but never thinking about the workers who made the phone. The whole concept of false consciousness within ideology is very much seen within capitalist societies, cuasing a distorted view held within our minds about the way the world really works. Many people believe that the perspective of false consciousness does not have much respect for ordinary people, or the working class. For example, as discussed in lecture, the idea of the American Dream may be viewed as false consciousness as not everyone is able to get ahead in society based on his or her class …show more content…
In our neighbouring country, the United States of America, George Bush’s ideas while he was president become a perfect example. With all of the power and elitism he held, he was able to start a war in Iraq and convince the people of America that this was a good idea because they were still livid from the attack on 9/11. This shows George Bush using his power to reinforce principles and ideas people in everyday life would not agree with if it had not been decided by someone with dominance over them. Bush was able to use his dominance over the people to create an ideology that would later have people realizing that they disagreed entirely with the idea of war and Bush’s motives. Ideology seemingly plays a huge role within the media spotlight, through politics, news and movies alike, to persuade viewers and followers to follow along in the footsteps of those in the spotlight because they are “right.” Thus, giving these forms of media the power to create and destroy, as well as persuade everyday people into falling for things they may not actually believe