Comparison Of Ideology In Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels

When the word “ideology” is heard, a variety of different people will have a variety of different responses. There are two common, but contrasting reactions to this word when it is brought up in conversation or in published works. The first meaning commonly ascribed to ideology is one often used in a pejorative manner and it describes a set of beliefs and methods of thought that are depicted as being “distorted, contrary to reality, and subject to “false consciousness.”” This definition is one that is often used by the media in an attempt to antagonize a certain ideological system. The second definition is a much more broad and inclusive one and it defines ideology as “any abstract or symbolic meaning system used to explain (or justify) social,

They did not only believe that ideology was something that could be avoided, but that it was something that should be avoided. The German Ideology, addresses ideology and how it relates to the pursuit for communism. It holds that: “in all ideology men and their circumstances appear upside-down as in a camera obscura.” Ideology’s only function, according to Marx and Engels, is the distortion of reality, implemented by the dominant bourgeoisie onto the proletariat. The common ideology of the elite class in a capitalist society is imposed on to the working class until they finally accept it, thus concocting a false-consciousness among them. With the control of the proletariat’s ideology, the bourgeoisie could form that ideology to fit whatever agenda they desired which to Marx and Engels, meant that workers would have an ideology of blatant oppression and exploitation. Ideology, therefore, is something that the proletariat needed to rid themselves of in order to liberate themselves from the chains forged by capitalism. Almost all people when confronted with communism will consider it to be an ideology, to which Marx and Engels deny, claiming that the ideas they propagate were actually scientific in