Marx Concept Of Ideology

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The concept of Ideology from Marx permeates the course, and its influence is felt throughout the other authors. Marx’ concept of ideology is essentially, “we detach the ideas of the ruling class from the ruling class itself and attribute to them an independent existence …it has to give its ideas the form, of universality, and present them as the only rational, universally valid ones” (Marx and Engles 10). The idea of ideology is that ideology is the ideas of those who are in power that have become so widespread that the general public accepts them at face value as common sense. These ideas reach saturation to the point that any alternative seems ludicrous in comparison to what is ingrained into that current society. They reach a point that…show more content…
For Hall, this is presented as cultural difference theory, “The argument here is that culture depends on giving things meaning by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory system. The marking of 'difference' is thus the basis of that symbolic order which we call culture” (Hall 236). This breaks down to the fact that peoples lives are given meaning based on where they are now and where they strive to be amongst the classification system. In addition to the fact that others around them perceive them as different based on where they are in the system regardless of how they viewed them prior to. This is represented in the episode of Black Mirror through the perceived social hierarchy demonstrated through the characters consumption of media. Within the energy production compound, the lowest place within the classificatory system would be the cleaners in the yellow uniforms; this is due to their perceived inability to produce their share of energy and are regulated to cleaning and being abused and mocked. There is a television show which puts the peddler citizen in a space where they are encouraged to laugh and mock the cleaners, while a video game continues to dehumanize them to the general population within further. This is confirmed by the way the character Dustin treats the cleaners, using foul language and deliberately throwing his trash on the ground for them to clean up (“Fifteen Million Merits”). The next place within the system is the peddlers who contribute to the energy production. This is next due to the ability to be demoted to a worker if deemed not to be ‘peddling your weight’. This is reinforced by dialogue presented from consumable media within the episode such as, “each paying their dues”, “riding for a brighter now” and finally “putting in an honest day on the bike, giving back to the world” (“Fifteen Million Merits”).
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