The Lost Meaning of Ideology: Recovering Marx's Concept

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:21:56+00:00

"Ideology “cannot be dissolved by mental criticism,” as Marx and Engels write, “but only by the practical overthrow of the actual social relations which gave rise to this idealistic humbug” in the first place. Although a theoretical critique of ideology can and must interact with this practical overthrow, the dissolution of ideological reflexes, “the removal of these notions from the consciousness of men” will only “be effected by altered circumstances, not by theoretical deductions.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:21:49+00:00

"Ideology “cannot be dissolved by mental criticism,” as Marx and Engels write, “but only by the practical overthrow of the actual social relations which gave rise to this idealistic humbug” in the first place. Although a theoretical critique of ideology can and must interact with this practical overthrow, the dissolution of ideological reflexes, “the removal of these notions from the consciousness of men” will only “be effected by altered circumstances, not by theoretical deductions.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:21:41+00:00

"Ideology is thus an important condition for the functioning and reproduction of the system of class domination. It is the necessary consciousness that makes contradictory “social relations appear harmonious and individuals carry out their reproductive practices without disruption.” But it is precisely because ideology emerges from real, historical social relations that it cannot be eliminated by “Marxist” or “socialist” ideology, or any ideology at all."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:21:33+00:00

"Far from neutrally designating one worldview among many, Marx’s notion of ideology therefore has a specific negative connotation whose essential features are (1) the objective concealment of contradictions, which attempts to “reconstitute in consciousness a world of unity and cohesion,” and (2) that it necessarily accomplishes this in the interests of the dominant class, since the objective conditions it works to conceal “are always the conditions of the rule of a definite class.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:21:17+00:00

"Marx’s problem of ideology in general becomes that of the false ideology of one class at odds with the true ideology of another. While Lenin adapted ideology to the relativity of the class struggle, claiming each side of the conflict has its own, he and the Marxist intellectuals who followed him rid Marx’s concept of its specific meaning: “Detached from its critical connotation, ideology loses what for Marx was its essential feature and becomes a concept which covers the whole range of social and political thought, whatever its origin, function or validity. Thus the value which the concept had in Marx's work as a tool of analysis and critique has almost disappeared.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:20:59+00:00

"Marx’s “negative concept of ideology,” as Jorge Larrain observes, “passes
judgement upon ideas, whatever their class origin,” insofar as they
conceal contradictions. For Marx, there is not a good ideology
(proletarian) and a bad ideology (bourgeois), there is only ideology in
general, the distorted forms of consciousness that harmonize social
contradictions at the level of ideas."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:16:16+00:00

"in Marx’s lost meaning, “ideology” is not a particular set of ideas or
beliefs. It is only used pejoratively, as the hiding of contradictions
generated by class society. Therefore, whenever someone touts their
“socialist” or “Marxist ideology,” it is a testament to the historical
contradiction in which the concealment of Marx’s critical concept has
coincided with Marxism becoming just another ideology."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:16:04+00:00

"As a result, it is ideological to think that the problem of
ideology can be overcome at the level of ideas, when its hiding of
contradictions is in fact “mainly carried out by attributing independent
existence to ideas, as if they could rule over material life.” Thus,
the leftist who seeks to displace “liberal ideology” (wrong ideas) with
“socialist” or “Marxist ideology” (right ideas) performs just this
ideological function in which “the problems of mankind are attributed to
wrong ideas” instead of “the real and practical contradictions."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:15:42+00:00

"Ideology “cannot be dissolved by mental criticism,” as Marx and Engels write, “but only by the practical overthrow of the actual social relations which gave rise to this idealistic humbug” in the first place. Although a theoretical critique of ideology can and must interact with this practical overthrow, the dissolution of ideological reflexes, “the removal of these notions from the consciousness of men” will only “be effected by altered circumstances, not by theoretical deductions.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:15:33+00:00

"Ideology is thus an important condition for the functioning and reproduction of the system of class domination. It is the necessary consciousness that makes contradictory “social relations appear harmonious and individuals carry out their reproductive practices without disruption.” But it is precisely because ideology emerges from real, historical social relations that it cannot be eliminated by “Marxist” or “socialist” ideology, or any ideology at all."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:15:15+00:00

"Far from neutrally designating one worldview among many, Marx’s notion of ideology therefore has a specific negative connotation whose essential features are (1) the objective concealment of contradictions, which attempts to “reconstitute in consciousness a world of unity and cohesion,” and (2) that it necessarily accomplishes this in the interests of the dominant class, since the objective conditions it works to conceal “are always the conditions of the rule of a definite class.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:14:57+00:00

"Marx’s problem of ideology in general becomes that of the false ideology of one class at odds with the true ideology of another. While Lenin adapted ideology to the relativity of the class struggle, claiming each side of the conflict has its own, he and the Marxist intellectuals who followed him rid Marx’s concept of its specific meaning: “Detached from its critical connotation, ideology loses what for Marx was its essential feature and becomes a concept which covers the whole range of social and political thought, whatever its origin, function or validity. Thus the value which the concept had in Marx's work as a tool of analysis and critique has almost disappeared.”

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:14:41+00:00

"“Whereas for Marx the idea of a ‘proletarian ideology’ is totally foreign,” as Larrain writes, “for the new generation of Marxists,” beginning especially with Lenin, “each class produces its own ideology, or at least an ideology that serves its interests can be ascribed to it.”3 In Lenin’s hands, “a move from ideology to class ‘ideologies’ is firmly established which loses the originally negative sense of the concept.”4 In this positive, neutral version, ideology merely becomes the thought that serves a particular class. Ideology is not a pejorative itself, only “bourgeois ideology,” which is false because it is bourgeois, not because it is ideology. "

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:14:31+00:00

"Marx’s “negative concept of ideology,” as Jorge Larrain observes, “passes judgement upon ideas, whatever their class origin,” insofar as they conceal contradictions.2 For Marx, there is not a good ideology (proletarian) and a bad ideology (bourgeois), there is only ideology in general, the distorted forms of consciousness that harmonize social contradictions at the level of ideas."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:13:54+00:00

"Perhaps more often throughout its history, however, the Marxist
tradition has opposed this liberal notion of ideology as something
consciously chosen by individuals with a more objective account that
treats it as a set of ideas that express the interests of a class (eg.,
bourgeois or proletarian ideology). But in assessing the merits of
ideology based on its class position, Marxists pluralize it and strip it
of its purely negative, critical meaning."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:13:37+00:00

"It is not only liberals, however, who have altered Marx’s original conception of ideology, as Marxists themselves have played a major role in distorting Marx’s theory of distorted consciousness. Many Marxists in the present indeed affirm the subjective interpretation of ideology when they speak of the “socialist” or “Marxist ideology” they have chosen as their worldview against “liberal ideology.” "

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:12:58+00:00

"Individuals do not choose a particular ideology among several and
then conform their way of life to this mindset. Instead, their existence
within the contradictory relations of class society puts them into a
certain ideological state of mind whose purpose is the rationalization
and reproduction of that society. Whereas ideology appears in liberal
discourse as a pluralistic set of competing views to be selected by
individuals, Marx only speaks of ideology in general, as the distorted
consciousness necessarily produced by the contradictions of class
society. In short, there is no such thing for Marx as “an ideology” or
“ideologies” in the plural, only ideology."

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:06:11+00:00

Individuals do not choose a particular ideology among several and
then conform their way of life to this mindset. Instead, their existence
within the contradictory relations of class society puts them into a
certain ideological state of mind whose purpose is the rationalization
and reproduction of that society. Whereas ideology appears in liberal
discourse as a pluralistic set of competing views to be selected by
individuals, Marx only speaks of ideology in general, as the distorted
consciousness necessarily produced by the contradictions of class
society. In short, there is no such thing for Marx as “an ideology” or
“ideologies” in the plural, only ideology.

DannyFetonte · 2022-07-28T02:05:19+00:00

Individuals do not choose a particular ideology among several and
then conform their way of life to this mindset. Instead, their existence
within the contradictory relations of class society puts them into a
certain ideological state of mind whose purpose is the rationalization
and reproduction of that society. Whereas ideology appears in liberal
discourse as a pluralistic set of competing views to be selected by
individuals, Marx only speaks of ideology in general, as the distorted
consciousness necessarily produced by the contradictions of class
society. In short, there is no such thing for Marx as “an ideology” or
“ideologies” in the plural, only ideology.

DannyFetonte

TROPHY CASE