An ideology is an idea, belief, or value that come from the
people. According to Karl Marx ideologies are created by the top class and
enforced to maintain and control the less dominate class. Ideologies such as
religion, culture, gender, and politics are created by society, but in turn end
up created a structure for society. They constrict people to these ideas by
creating a path of what is socially acceptable. Ideologies create social norms
and deviance because if you go against the belief system you will be considered
deviant, possibly even criminal. It sounds that ideologies would be helpful to
keep order with in a society, but Karl Marx’s believes that ideologies are a
problem in a capitalist economy because they create obscure realities.
A
good example, today, of an ideology creating an obscure reality is societies
view on education. Today, it is hard to find employment opportunities in a
field without at least having an associates or bachelor’s degree for a job that
10 or 15 years ago only required a high school diploma. In reality, the job did
not get any harder. The level of difficulty probably stayed the same, but
society now sees more of an importance on education before launching into work.
It many fields, today, a bachelor’s degree isn’t even enough. We now tend to
believe that a person is not qualified for a job without an associates or
bachelor’s degree when that could actually just be our obscure reality.
Karl
Marx’s view of ideologies is still very relevant today. Although our class
system is divided into more than two classes ideologies are still used to
create social control over the less dominate class. This ends up creating an
even larder divide. Here is a song by Billy Bragg that demonstrates the social
organization in a capitalist economy and how it is an obscured reality of
equality and freedom.
Great thoughts! I completely agree with the fact that society has put a huge value on educations. One person can really not get anywhere in the business world without having a masters degree slapped on the back of thier name. How sad is that? I think our society puts a lot of pressure onto what people should and should not value, in really every aspect; which is directly connected with Marx's thoughts on ideologies. I like the song you included, but I would have liked to hear more as to why you chose that song and how it connects to Marx's idology ideas.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in the same topic and I agree with a lot of what you say. I think ideologies are used as tool of power against less dominate classes and makes it confusing as to what actual reality is. You gave a good example that helped me to understand the concepts even better since I have a hard time sometimes connecting specific examples to the real world. You basically mentioned it all around in your entry, but the only thing I would've added is the term "camera obscura" and exactly what that means or how it is a metaphor for this idea.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point of view. I defiantly agree with what you’re saying. A lot of jobs do require post high school education but that’s only because society says so. If you were to take a person and teach them the job that needs to be done, they will do it. Employers like to see an education but in my opinion, it doesn’t mean much. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues in years to come.
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