Karl Marx's Theory

In his theory of ideology, Marx tries to justify the actions of the ruling class and the workers by claiming that they are both blinded by the doctrine. This essay goes into details on the two theories and tries to establish the relationship between alienation theory and the ideology theory of Karl Marx. Marx formulated his theory in a capitalist economy where the rich owned almost everything, and the peasants had close to nothing. Those higher in the social class owned factories across the country but needed the surplus labor that the poor could offer for low wages (Wendling, 2009). Peasants would work for hours in these factories doing tedious tasks only to receive minimal pay for their efforts. Marx, in his definition of ideology, explains it as the, "production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness” (Rehmann, n.

d. Marx he claims to imagine these concepts before they put them into action. Marx describes ideology as the superstructure of civilization that the world undergoes. This means that it is because of these ideologies that different people come with that new things come up or new ways of doing things come up. The workers get to provide labor for lower wages that do not equal the actual labor. The rich, however, get to make a profit from the surplus labor that the workers are offering. Marx argues out that the workers stay motivated by the actual ideology that they do not realize they are exploited by these capitalists. He also adds that the ruling class is too blinded by the ideology and this way they get to stay in control.

An evaluation of both theories by Marx shows that ideology, for instance, those brought up by the ruling class, can either result to this. Man is caught up in the lies told by the ruling class blinded by the idea that he is working to satisfy his needs. The ruling class, on the other hand, are blinded by the benefits they gain from this form of exploitation. As Marx illustrates an ideology should be that which shows the actual conditions within the social construct of the society. The ideology however becomes contradictory when the ruling classes deceive the people and exploit them instead. In a capitalist society, ideology contradicts to the real social conditions (Comninel, 2018). doi:10. 1057/978-1-137-57534-0_5 Milios, J.

(n. d. Theory of Value and Ideology. Karl Marx’s Concept of Alienation. Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation, 13-60. doi:10. 1057/9780230233997_2 Question 2 According to Karl Marx, for there to be a state of balance in a society, there has to be a conflict in society. This is due to various factors among them the inequality in the society between the different classes of people. The history of a community is driven by changes in how people work and how they make things. Marx emphasizes that to be able to understand the history of people, one need to know how they utilized their labor and how they made items or goods in their society. The history is created through continuous changes. According to Marx, there are two classes in the capitalist society.

Those who own labor and those who own the means of production or technology to produce (Karl Marx on society and social change, 1973). Therefore, the goods that are produced change with time. The history of the people change due to the differences in the labor and the means of production, the goods they produced and the changes in labor signify this. Marx in his theory also describes that the society changes regarding stages. There cannot be an immediate change directly from one step to the last. According to him, there are six stages, and there exists a conflict between the people in the society at each stages. d. The owners of labor at this stage are entirely owned by the owners of means of production, and they have no rights.

The next step is the feudalism stage where the conflict exists between the landowners and the serfs. In this case, society is more agricultural and the battle is more in the farms. The next stage in the conflict exists between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In some society, it the urge to produce more and the need for new material that results in changes in the society rather than the conflict of classes as explained in this theory. For instance, with time every community evolves due to the need for more or the need to ease the production process. References Elliott, J.  E. Karl Marx: On Society and Social Change *. Morrison, K. Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formations of modern social thought. London: Sage.