Marx & Engels
IDEOLOGY & DIALECTIC MATERIALISM
The Truth
WHY IS MARX A BAD-ASS?
 Applied Dialectics (really old idea) to history
in order to understand it
 Opposed philosophical idealism (let’s live in
the woods, but more complicated)
 Instead of thinking ideally, he thought
materialistically
 “[P]hilosophers have only interpreted the
world, in various ways; the point however is
to change it“. K. Marx
Are you ready?
 What to expect from the rest of this
presentation:
 Marx will systematically strip you from your very
essence. His ideas basically led our understanding
of the world to Existencialism, which is really
depressing, and someone else will lecture on.
 After that, he will offer a solution – REVOLUTION.
 THAT IS WHY MARX IS A BAD-ASS: HE WILL NOT
LEAVE YOU ALONE, HE WILL HAVE YOUR BACK!
The history of all hitherto society
is the history of class struggle.
OPPRESSOR
Ideology
Means of Production
CONTRADICTION
Revolution
OPPRESSED
ALIENATION
 “[I]n emerging industrial production under
capitalism, workers inevitably lose control of their
lives and selves, in not having any control of their
work.”
 Activities of the workers are chosen by the owners,
capitalist; who in return pay them.
 Ownership of production/product in hands of capitalist.
 Workers are likely to be separated from their fellow
workers.
 Workers driven away from their potential and tasks
become mindless.
ALIENATION
 We are beings bred for work.
 From the moment we are born, we live our lives for
POP QUIZ!
Do you think she
needed that jacket?
capitalism. We are pushed by our parents to go
school, to get good grades, to get into better
schools, to get a good JOB.
 A good job is not necessarily dictated to you, but the
idea of a good job is determined to you by the
system. Your wants and needs maybe your own, but
if you are a product of your society, then… you
represent and build society as a mirror.
 There are no innate ideas. Information is presented
to you as an ideology to keep you linked to the
system to which you belong.
 Fashion and you.
IDEOLOGY
 Ideology itself represents the "production of ideas, of
conceptions, of consciousness," all that "men say,
imagine, conceive," and include such things as "politics,
laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc.“
 Ideology functions as the superstructure of a civilization:
the conventions and culture that make up the dominant
ideas of a society.
 The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal
expression of the dominant material relationships, the
dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence
of the relationships which make the one class the ruling
one, therefore, the ideas of their dominance“
 It tends to obfuscate the violence and exploitation that
often keep a disempowered group in its place
A Prison for your mind
 We are slaves to our society, yet we determine it.
 We are born into a set of ideas that we have no
control of, that will determine our very identity.
 “Life is not determined by consciousness, but
consciousness by life”
 Ideologies function as a superstructure for a
POP
QUIZ
civilization.
What
does
that
sentence
lead
us
back
to?
 It represents and protects the ruling class’
interests.
 Tends to obfuscate the violence and exploitation
that often keeps a disempowered group in its place
Marxist Analysis
Case 1: Tabula Rasa
- Tabula Rasa, if analyzed further, means “we
are all born equal”.
- Is that true? Lets see…
He will be offered his first
joint at the age of 11. He
will have contact with
violence shortly
Joe White-Trash is born into a household thereafter.
with the following characteristics:
If he is one of the X% to graduate
Joanna will attend private schools
from high school, his SAT score
herwill
entire
life. She
will travel
He
be raised
in E.Compton,
a X% chance to be
She
will
to
Harvard
abroad
2 times
and
by be
the
CA,
where
thereaisyear,
a 60%
level
of admitted has
Her
father is a neuro-surgeon, and
She
will
marry
and
establish
a
family
with
insatisfactory
for California public
School
of
Medicine
after
being
tangent
time
she
is
18,
she
will
have
been
high-school
incompletion,
highher
mother
is
a Business
professor
He will live his life to earn
at earnings
most $40.000
a year
to support
his family.
higher
than
her
previous.
universities.
to
perfection
to
allofcontinents
in the
world.
and
drug
abuse. in her admission
Hislevel
father
isviolence
unknown,
and
his
at UCLA.scores,
Together, their income
and due
program.
mother is unemployed, relying
on to their legacy
averages
$500.000 a year.
welfare. She has a crystal-meth
addiction
20 miles
away…
is born!
and
has 2Joanna
other White-Class
slightly
older children.
Marxist Analysis
LET’S TALK ABOUT DISNEY PRINCESSES!!!!!
Case 2: Disney
What do these
women (?) have in
common?
Do you think that
watching these
movies has affected
your views on
womanhood?
IDEOLOGY – Nationalism and War
In attempting to recruit more members,
Army Ad
untry
Marxist Analysis
Case 3: Nationalism
USAP.A.T.R.I.O.T.
PATRIOT ACT
U.S.A.
ACT
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001
The Patriot Act DIRECTLY affects your rights.