Marie89, Hebdige

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling class, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same tome its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it” (Marx as quoted in Hebdige 150). I believe that this quote is essential in the explanation of ideology within culture. Culture is based on a set of common beliefs and ideas held by a group of people. These ideas are filtered into a society through the ruling class, as they are dominant and therefore their ideas are permeated as dominant as well. Through the ideologies presented by this ruling class, the rest of a culture comes to accept these ideas as real and a culture is created and continued. Without such a group of people to contribute ideas, there would be no culture, as people would not be structured in their thinking through ideology. Society functions on social structure. If there is no structure, then no society may exist and no culture can be formed. It is through the subconscious thought, however, that ideas are formed and perpetuated. On page 149, Hebdige states that in order “To uncover the ideological dimension of signs we must first try to disentangle the codes through which meaning is organized.” In other words, signs and symbols differ from culture to culture which is what makes cultures unique. In order to understand ideology, we must break down the infinite symbols behind the signs that have been produced by the ruling class within a society.