In continuation of our
discussion on ideology, we shall pitstop next on the immensely popular book, The German Ideology, authored jointly by
Marx and his intellectual friend Engels!
Well, in this book Marx
and his intellectual companion of more than four decades – Engels, postulate a
‘new world-view,’ which according to them would be the ‘materialist conception
of history’!
Why-o-why do they
suggest a new world-view that focuses on the materialist conception of history?
Yes! A materialist conception
of history chiefly because, both of them strongly felt the need for people to be liberated from
the material conditions in which they live!
And this is exactly the
point of contention between the duo and the Young Hegelians! While the Young
Hegelians believed that the lives of people can be changed for the better by
impacting a change in their thoughts and ideas, the duo beg to differ!
The duo strongly believe
that, since it is the material conditions in which people live that shapes
every aspect of their lives, change was needed first and foremost in the
material conditions in which they lived!
As they themselves put
it,
In direct contrast to
German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from
earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men say, imagine,
conceive, nor from men as narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order
to arrive at men in the flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the
basis of their real life-process we demonstrate the development of the
ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process.
Then they proceed to
outline the first premises of the Materialist Method!
The first premise of all
human history is of course, the existence of living human individuals. As
individuals express their life, so they are. What they are therefore, coincides
with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce!
The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining
their production.
Distribution of Labour, according
to Marx and Engels has a debilitating effect on the human being!
In their own words,
For as soon as the distribution
of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of
activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a
hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he
does not want to lose his means of livelihood.
On the contrary, Marx
and Engels feel that,
in communist society,
where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become
accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production
and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow,
to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening,
criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter,
fisherman, herdsman or critic.
Commenting then on
language and Consciousness, the duo observe that,
Language is as old as
consciousness, language is practical consciousness that exists also for other
men, and for that reason alone it really exists for me personally as well;
language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of
intercourse with other men. Where there exists a relationship, it exists for
me: the animal does not enter into "relations" with anything, it does
not enter into any relation at all. For the animal, its relation to others does
not exist as a relation.
To the duo, then,
Consciousness is a social product! They observe,
Consciousness is, therefore,
from the very beginning a social product, and remains so as long as men exist
at all. Consciousness is at first, of course, merely consciousness concerning
the immediate sensuous environment and consciousness of the limited connection
with other persons and things outside the individual who is growing
self-conscious.
This line that comes
next is the icing on the cake!
This demand to change
consciousness amounts to a demand to interpret reality in another way, i.e. to
recognise it by means of another interpretation!
Now let’s get back to
the first premises outlined by Marx and Engels –
To Marx and to Engels,
then, the first and foremost attribute of human life is not ideas, like ideas
of ethics, morality, good, bad, God, man, etc! Rather it is the forces of
production into which humans enter in order to maintain and develop their
material lives!
The materialists
strongly attack any form of idealistic thought! They feel that all forms of
idealistic thoughts like the soul, the heart, dignity, rights, humanity etc are
cunning and exploitative myths!
To the materialists,
then, human nature has no inherent value system which would remain the same if
they had lived in an altogether different material condition or circumstance!
So it is a person’s
place in the system that determines their life and their values in every
aspect, they observe!
Hence the reason why
Marx and Engels emphasise again and again on the materialist conception of
history!
Let’s fast forward to
yet another book by Marx, titled, A
Critique of Political Economy. In the Preface to this book, Marx elaborates
– still again – on this ‘materialist conception of history’ in a simple way! To
him, ‘The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political
and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men
that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that
determines their consciousness'!!!
In this materialist
conception of history, then, the sum total of the forces and relations of
production constitute its ‘base’ or ‘infrastructure’, and out of this economic
base develops a ‘superstructure’, that determines every other aspect of life of
that society.
The superstructure then,
comprises the political and legal establishments around which the society is
structured. In addition, the superstructure also consists of all the forms of
consciousness through which the subjects of the society understand, represent
and communicate to each other! These forms of consciousness include theories of
politics, philosophy, art, literature, religion, and every other form of
cultural production, in today’s parlance, the Media, the Social networking
sites et al!
According to Marx, then,
all these forms of consciousness make up ‘ideology’!!!
Now I guess, we would be
in a position to understand why Marx says that, all forms of the
superstructure, like political theories, art, literature, philosophy, religion,
media et al cannot exist all by themselves! On the contrary, they are all [the
superstructure] conditioned, shaped and determined by the economic base or the forces
of production that ‘condition’ that particular society!
Hence, through The
German Ideology, Marx and Engels emphasise their strong views that, only a materialist
conception of history would help in studying the literary works and cultural
works of a particular epoch vis-a-vis their economic base that helps in
producing them all!
To sum it up in this
blogger’s own words, ;-)
via Marx and Engels,
Humanity Lost =
Capitalism
Humanity Regained = Communism
To be continued…
Images: amazondotcom, slidesharedotnet/christopherrice
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