Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BigMarx Class
BigMarx Class
BigMarx Class
• A formal definition:
– Ideology is a conceptual scheme that provides a culture
with a perspective for viewing their reality and the
foundation for their political & social action.
• Get it??
– I didn’t think so. . . Let’s break it down.
What is Ideology?
In 13 Bullets
• 1) Ideology provides us with our perspective (or lens) for
viewing & understanding our reality
– We are not born with computer chips—we become “products of
our culture”
– We are taught how to see/think/act
– The “cultural sun glasses” you can’t take off
• 2) This reality is “socially constructed”
– All that we know/see/feel/believe is a language creation
• This makes communication the KEY to all understanding
• 3) Most importantly for critical theorists, ideology shapes
our understanding of power relationships with others
– Who’s good, bad, moral, worthy, smart, lazy, etc.
– White, rich, American, heterosexual, Christian men seem to
always come out on the winning side
What is Ideology?
• 4) It is not a conspiratorial plot by white, rich men
– We simply repeat what we have always known as truth
and nature
• To do anything else would appear to be absurd, stupid, and weird
– Let’s write a book!
• 5) It is not a physical entity (can’t measure it)
– Thus “critical researchers” look for how it is operationalized
• MTV, church sermons, history books, parental lessons, cartoons, toys,
laws/policy, advertisements, presidential speeches, etc.
• 6) This reality is a false/biased/tainted consciousness
– It prevents us from seeing the truth (or at least seeing more
critically, fairly, & equitably)
What is Ideology?
• 7) Ideology masquerades as untouched, untainted nature
– We’re unaware that our reality is both constructed and biased
• We forget that we are seeing all things through those sun glasses
– Instead, we believe that the way things are (especially power
relationships) is nature’s doing
• We believe our understanding of the world is neutral, unbiased, untainted,
“common sense” (my conversation with my grandparents)
• 8) No one can escape its influence
– By the time you are smart enough to understand “ideology,” you
have already become a product of its influence
– The best you can do is to rage against it!
• 9) It is conservative, perpetuating the status quo
– It will always maintain present power relationships
– If you don’t think it is “alterable,” change is unthinkable
• You can’t think outside the box because you are unaware that you are even
in a box (ironically, of your own making)!
What is Ideology?
• 10) Ideology is produced by all of a culture’s “super
structures”
– Church, schools, families, history, art, media
– Each believing they are telling good “truths” (not lies)
– Thus ideology is spread by a “complete cultural propaganda
system”
• 11) Ideology is sustained by a culture’s “state apparatuses”
– Police, Army, Laws, Policy, and Politics
– Each believing they are maintaining “justice” (not oppressing)
What is Ideology?
• 12) Force, however, is not needed most of the time—Hegemony
is more powerful!
– “Hegemony is the willing agreement by people to be governed by
principles and laws they believe operate in their best interests,
even though in actual practice they do not” (Lull 1995)
• They have bought into (& participate in) their own oppression
• The disempowered are convinced of their own inferiority
– “It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head” (S. Kempton)
– The real reason there is not revolution in the streets
• 13) Ideology is always contested by counter-hegemonic forces
– The ruling class is never safe or stable
– Enough of the disempowered always see though the lie!
– Music (Public Enemy, Coal Mine Blue Grass, Rage, Coltrane) feminism &
multiculturalism, movies (Thelma, Do the Right Thing), graffiti, TV (Will and
Grace; Cosby Show, Mash), education (this class!)
A Case Study in
Cla$$ Ideology
Let’s Revolt!
• If all this “Capitalist Oppression” is true, why don’t we revolt?
• Ideology (i.e., a rhetorically constructed story that is believed by most in a society to be a true and
accurate description of reality)