Elmo, Marx/Althusser

In Karl Marx’s essay "The German Ideology" he makes an interesting point by saying, “the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production, so that the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are on the whole subject to it” (39). Marx is basically stating that the upper class controls the ideology of everyone else. This happens because the upper class has the most means of forming ideas and letting these ideas be heard, because of their upper level in society people are more apt to listen to them and go along with what they are doing. While lower classes may have just as many good ideas, they may not have as many outlets in which there ideas could be heard.

Althusser also makes an interesting point stating that, “to recognize that we are subjects and that we function in the practical rituals of the more elementary everyday life….this recognition only gives us the ‘consciousness’ of our incessant (eternal) practice of ideological recognition…but in no sense does it give us the (scientific) knowledge of the mechanism of this recognition” (47). Althusser seems to be making a point that without people or “subjects” ideology wouldn’t really be possible. We, as subjects, play into these ideas given to us and thus support the ideology. If we did not play into these ideologies they would have little or no importance because no one would follow along with them or even care. It’s our little acts of following along that play into the making of ideology. We may not think that each one of us makes a different, but each one of us that plays into these ideologies set forth is supporting them and making them stronger. We have learned a lot about ideology and ISA’s since CMC 100, but I think that these readings helped solidify the concepts for me.