Discuss ideologies using a marxist approach Essay

Discuss ideologies using a marxist approach - Essay Example This is because the economy and its indices play very important roles in determining who we are. Modern socialism is, in its content, primarily the product of the perception on the one hand of the class antagonisms existing in modem society between possessors and non-possessors, wage workers and bourgeois; and, on the other hand, of the anarchy ruling in production. In its theoretical form, however, it originally appears as a further and ostensibly more logical extension of the principles established by the great French philosophers of the eighteenth century. Like every new theory, it had at first to link itself to the intellectual material which lay ready at hand, however deep its roots lay in economic facts. Engels 185 Marxism principally has to with the modes of production in any society. Marxism recognizes that there are two main social classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The division can be further divided into petit-bourgeoisie and the lumpen-proletariat. The mode of production which Marxists advocate is socialism. Socialism is a system of production in which everyone in the society is equal; in this society, every form of inequality as a result of ownership and control of the mode of production by individuals is not welcome. Unlike what obtains in a capitalist state, the majority will no longer toil only for the non-working upper class to reap the fruit of their labor. However, Marxists believe that the transformation from capitalism will not happen all of a sudden. The change will go through some evolutionary and revolutionary stage. The change which the people desire would only come when they arrive at that point where they determine that they want it bad enough to ask for it—this is the time the proletariat have been pushed to the wall. Marxists believe that capitalism will not exist forever because before it, there were some other modes of production like feudalism and slavery. When the proletariats have taken the reins of power from their oppressors, then socialism will emerge. Socialism is the stage where the masses have been able to remove class stratification. Yet, socialism is itself not perfect until the mode of production become communist. The bottom-line is that no matter what the ideology is, the Marxist approach is against it if it promotes social inequality. In trying to come out as conquerors in the battle waged against capitalism and other holders of ideologies that are incoherent with what Marxism stands for, Marxists are well aware of the fact that one of the first places key to their victory is the minds of the oppressed. In daily living, our consciousness plays a very integral role. Every human being makes use of their consciousness in everything they do. Capitalism has succeeded, through bourgeois ideology, in capturing the operations of the consciousness of many people such that they themselves are now the ones that have given themselves to the dictates of capitalism. All these happen because anything that happens under capitalism is built under the construct of ideology. It is the belief of capitalists that profit must be made at all cost. So, they explore all they can; every machine, every human power. The situation in many capitalist enterprises is such that the laborer is far less important than the machine. Capitalism