Mongoose, Marx / Althusser

The basic premise of these writings seems to be that ideology is everywhere, we can not escape it. Everywhere we look, every advertisement, billboard, commercial etc has some underlying influence on us that is in some way affected by ideology. The introduction explains to us that ideology, at first, starts off as a conscious and deliberate effort to influence us in some way yet eventually turns into an unconscious influence on our lives, meaning that one’s lived experiences and personal lives will begin to shape our belief system, no longer needing the conscious effort of those in power to influence our thinking because it has already taken over. The concept of ideology is quite prevalent in the writings of Karl Marx particularly in his concept of the division of labor. One concept of ideology is that those who hold the power in a given society (usually those with money) have a great influence over those who are not in power and to some extent can control or influence what they believe. In the time that Marx was writing there was a drastic division in society between those who had money and those who didn’t (much like today) and the influence which they held over the thinking of others. However, Marx believed that those who were expressing their opinions were not actually the thoughts of the entire class; he felt that those who actually had good ideas did not have time to “toot their own horn” so to speak because they were busy accomplishing things within society or were “active members of this class and have less time to make up illusions and ideas about themselves” (39). Ithink this holds true even in today’s society; take the healthcare debates for example: al we saw on the news from the ‘town hall meetings’ were the extremists who were screaming and yelling and threatening anyone who opposed their viewpoint (this came from both those who agreed with the proposal as well those who disagreed) while a large majority of Americans may have actually been civil and had good arguments for their beliefs. However, because the rational people more than likely had better things to do, we only see and hear the ‘crazies’ and are influenced by their actions when they do not hold the viewpoint that most on their side or in their class do.