Nemo, Marx - Make Up

Marx discusses the concepts of Ideology and hegemony. This is a concept that we have discussed in previous CMC classes so I am somewhat comfortable in discussing the reading but I did have some confusion in some parts. "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness." It is common knowledge that money rules society, but here I believe that Marx is trying to say what determines our being. This is an example of the world wide debate of nature vs. nurture. Their nature or social determines their awareness of society and the world. The consciousness determines the class that will have the ruling force and vise versa. "The Ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. THe class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production". Here Marx is illustrating how the ruling class develops the 'norm' of society - or the rules that the rest of the society has to follow. He emphasizes that the class that has more economic wealth will be have more of an influence on the rules that society has to follow - they will chose those that will allow them to benefit the most. This was my take on Marx, I could have missed some points but overall I believe that this illustrates what he was discussing in our reading.