Ideology

The Raft of George W. Bush (2006) Joel-Peter Witkin

I have to admit that Ideology appears to be easier to grasp as a theory than Semiotics. By definition, a part of Ideology seems to shape histories of politics, economies, and cultures of the so-called ruling class of a favorable ideology controlling the overall consensus of that time. Also, as Marx points out, Ideology is defined not as the consciousness of the individual but of an individual’s social being (33). In this statement, we can correlate, as discussed by Zizek in Section 2.7, that our individual consciousness is of a dream state of our internal world whereas our social being is the reality of our exterior world.
This appears many of the readings in chapter 2. In 2.1, Karl Marx states a social being’s economic class interest results in the ideology of the production that satisfies the material existence of that class. In 2.2, Marx and Engels make note of the Hegelian idea that a ruling class will force their ruling ideas until the ideas cease to be of importance and necessity of the ruling class of that time. In Edward Said’s Orientalism, the ruling class of Western Europe imposed its ideology of “The Orient” (a subjective definition imposed by “The West”) in order to expose the so-called weaknesses of these countries in the Far East. Hence, we come to the idea of the White Man’s Burden and that because Western society has been civilized whereas The Orient is exotic and dangerous. Therefore, the ideology of the White Man’s Burden pushes forth that The Orient is lacking wisdom for autonomy and must be imperialized by The West. Interesting how similar this appears with the United States involvement in the Middle East. Is it the White Man’s Burden to enforce the democratic ideology in a geographic region halfway around the world? Or is it in the interest of the ruling class that all have similar economic interests in a certain commodity like Oil? Lastly, in 2.7, Zizek makes me aware than a ruling ideology will only exist when there is no opposition in changing reality. Only when we confront our dreams or unconsciousness in opposition to reality that a new ruling class can emerge in our social beings to promote a new ideology that will continually take form.
In all of the above examples, it appears that ideology can only succeed when an overwhelming number of individuals and their dreams, or unconsciousness, react in order to enforce a collective ideology of their real social beings, I look forward to discussing more in class and seeing how this translates in The Subject of Art History.