Ideological forms like wages serve to maintain capitalist domination
Evidence
Marx however insisted, not merely that men live their relations to their real conditions of existence “in ideology,” but that, in the capitalist mode of production, they will “think” those conditions, in general, within the limits of a dominant ideology; and that, generally, this will tend to be the ideology of the dominant classes . The fact that the proletariat “lives” the collective socialization of labor, under capitalism, through the fragmenting form of the market , and thinks this condition of its material life within the discourses which organize market practices ideologically (or that, under capitalism the proletariat “lives” the expropriation of surplus value in the “ideological form” of wages —a form giving rise to its own ideological discourses: wage bargaining, economism, what Lenin called “trade-union consciousness,” “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” etc.) is not, for Marx, simply a descriptive feature of capitalism. These ideological inflections perform a pivotal role in the maintenance of capitalist relations and in their continuing domination within the social formation. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 903
Marx however insisted, not merely that men live their relations to their real conditions of existence “in ideology,” but that, in the capitalist mode of production, they will “think” those conditions, in general, within the limits of a dominant ideology; and that, generally, this will tend to be the ideology of the dominant classes . The fact that the proletariat “lives” the collective socialization of labor, under capitalism, through the fragmenting form of the market , and thinks this condition of its material life within the discourses which organize market practices ideologically (or that, under capitalism the proletariat “lives” the expropriation of surplus value in the “ideological form” of wages —a form giving rise to its own ideological discourses: wage bargaining, economism, what Lenin called “trade-union consciousness,” “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” etc.) is not, for Marx, simply a descriptive feature of capitalism. These ideological inflections perform a pivotal role in the maintenance of capitalist relations and in their continuing domination within the social formation. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 903
Categorization
- DEFINE: Explains how the wage-form and market as ideology perform the work of reproducing capitalist relations.
- XREF: The ‘trade-union consciousness’ link connects to Lenin’s theory of spontaneous vs. vanguard consciousness. — connects to: Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs; Capitalist relations must be reproduced ideologically, not just economically — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 628; Juridico-political ideology masks the economic’s determinant role under capitalism (+25 more)
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 903
Broader Connections
- Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital
#exemplifies(0.80)