Introduction
Karl Marx is one of the greatest contributors in the field of political ideology. His perspective of ideology was brought out clearly in the book The German Ideology in which he coauthored with Frederick Engels. Through this book, Marx gives insight in the issue of political ideology. Accordingly, this paper will identify the major arguments of Marx and Engels about ideology as expounded in this in this book.
Main body
What is an ideology? According to Marx and Engels, ideologies are “the production of ideas, of conceptions of consciousness” (p. 47). The ideologies are the main foundations upon which an individual bases his words, how he frames his imagination, and how he makes his conception of the world around him. Accordingly, these ideas are equally important in the individual’s decision concerning his political inclination, formation and adaptation of laws, their religious interpretation, the society’s moral perspectives and all the other metaphysics within the society. Basically, the ideological perspectives of any given society mark the basis and the superstructure upon which civilization is founded. To be precise, ideologies are the building stones that determine the society’s dominant ideas. Their ideologies act as the conventions which determine the society’s ideas.
Secondly, Karl Marx explains the issue of ideology in relation to leadership. As mentioned, ideologies form the main blocks upon which the society’s political perspectives are founded. Marx explains that the ruling ideas are however, not the ideas of the whole society. These are, in most cases, the ideas of the clique of the society that is involved in ruling. These are made up of the “dominant material relationships” (p. 64). According to Marx, this relationship determines the dominant ideas which in turn make this class to dominate over the others. Therefore, the main aim of ideology is to justify these natural forces that develop the given structure. Ideology tries to explain how the different societies within the different scales on the ladder are kept in their place and hence maintain the society’s structure. Ideology therefore highlights the violence and other tools of exploitation used by the ruling class to keep their subjects under control. Ideology aims at pointing out how lower classes like slaves and peasantry or any other community of disempowered citizens are put under control. Marx therefore engages in uncovering the contradictions in the dominant ideology through the use of the mode of production of a society.
One of the outstanding contributions of this book is to extrapolate on the idea that ideological mystifications are not the only basis through which the true conditions that promote human existence can be analyzed. Marx and Engels hence embark on using the mode of production of a society to determine their ideological perspective. On its part, the mode of production of the society is made up of several other factors like the means of production. This is made up of the material conditions that make up the society at the given point of time. Next, the relations of production works hand in hand with the means of production in determining the society’s mode of production. The relations of production are the ways in which the society has structured the relationship between the different members of the society. The relations of production are mostly defined by the labor relations – how the society has organized its division of labor.
Marx and Engels argue that the society’s mode of production determines the ideologies of a given society because of the following reasons. Firstly, the human life and existence is determined by the basic needs like food, shelter, clothing and other needs. Therefore, an individual will always try to get a reliable means of getting access to means of ensuring that these needs are satisfied. The availability and satisfaction of the materialistic part of life marks the essence of existence. Accordingly, this materialistic nature of humans directly determines the ideological inclination of the society. This supposition is evidenced in their argument that “life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life” (p. 47). This is a clear indication that the consciousness of an individual or a society is a creation of the factors that make up life. This is to say, the ideologies embraced by a given society are purely determined by life itself. Therefore, ideologies are determined by life not the other way round.
However, Marx argues that not all instances of ideological formulations are a result of the modes of production of the given society. In some rare cases, other factors could lead to the formulation of ideas that are contrary to the mode of production. This marks Marx’s theory of reflection. The book argues that other aspects of the society like literature and cultural activities could impact greatly on the ideologies of the society. Their influences are results of their autonomous coexistence within the society and hence the formulation of ideologies that are contrary with the expected ideologies as based on the mode of production.
Considering the mode of production as an influencing factor in the formulation of ideologies, Marx and Engels make a developmental analysis of the human civilization. Of particular interest within the modes of production is the division of labor. Through this, human civilization developed a society made up of tribal forms. This was the elementary form of social set up that revolved around kinship where men were expected to hunt while the women were expected to settle or domestic chores and requirements. With these specific expectations, the division of labor is evidenced and also the beginning of establishment of slave culture. Secondly, Marx and Engels point out the primitive communism as the second stage of the development of civilization. This form of societal set is evidenced after the tribal form develops into slavery that marks the provenance of classes within the society. This form of society is characterized by union of several tribes that form a coalition and develop state ownership through either “agreement or conquest” (p. 44). This marked the beginning of private property ownership. In fact, Marx and Engels argue that the contemporary private property ownership is a direct development from this form of government. It also marked the birth of proletariats.
Next in the process of development was the Feudal property. This form of societal set up was not very different from primitive communism. They also depended on the community as the unit of existence and ownership. However, in this form of property ownership, those who took control of property were not slaves as exhibited in the primitive community organization. In stead, the property in this system was managed by the peasantry. Trade guilds became the characteristics of the feudal structures. The authors point out that this society was characterized by limited labor division within the society. Cultivation and other forms of production were operated under restricted conditions. In comparison to capitalism, exploitation was less as the peasantry was expected to hand over a given portion of his products to the church and the aristocrats. This gave way to capitalism.
Population growth and also the increase of commerce exerted pressure on the aristocrats. On the other hand, this led to accumulation of capital by the feudal society. This pressure was the causing factor of the English Revolution in 1640 and later 1789s French revolution. These two revolutions had a great impact on the societal set up. They introduced capitalism and also changed the structure of the society where the new structure depended on profits and commodities. It was with this set up that the proletariats were subjected further to exploitation. This was facilitated by the belief that their labor could be quantified and hence literal buying and selling of labor on the market. This was a great opportunity for the small population of people who could raise adequate capital to make use and greatly exploit the larger population that was fooled to believe that they were benefiting from the set up through the meager payments extended to them by the ruling class. In addition, this social set up led to working class being sidelined as the means of production was in the hands of the few people who had the capital.
What are Marx’s arguments on capitalism? As mentioned earlier. The ability to quantify labor and the development of exchange value were the main facilitating forces that contributed to the development of capitalism. Marx argues that while value determination of objects was based on its use value and the labor that was required in the object’s production, capitalism posed a challenge as labor was an abstract entity. However, it was from this context of labor used in barter trade during quantification that capitalism developed their own methods of determining exchangeability of labor. The use value of it makes it possible for it to be exchanged for tangible products. This quality hence allows the labor to be exchanged for food, gold, money etc. By and by, this led to the formation of universal equivalence which enabled traders to employ a single universal measure to determine the value of items within different groups. This trend eventually led the capitalistic market’s emphasis on exchange value as opposed to the barter trade’s emphasis on use value. This led to the development of the use of money in the market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, labor has been the basis for the formation of ideologies within the contemporary society. This is attributed to the human being’s nature of wanting to fulfill his basic needs like food, shelter and clothing. This eventually out much emphasis on the production of commodities that would meet these basic needs. Accordingly, this demand led to value determination that developed since the times of barter trade to the current use of money. However, the perspectives of value changed with time. With the introduction of capitalism, the emphasis of use value was substituted by exchange value that was determined by money. This was emphasized through the issue of universal equivalence that allowed money to determine the value of many commodities.
Works Cited
Marx, Karl, Engels, Frederich and Arthur, Christopher. The German Ideology. London: International Publishers Company, 1970.