Ideologies act on people structurally through a process that escapes them

Evidence

It can be seen that, far from there being a homologous relationship between the material basis of practice, in capitalism, and how it appears , these now have to be thought, rigorously, as two related but systematically dislocated articulations of a capitalist social formation. They relate, but through their systematic differences—through a necessary series of transformations . The level of ideology, of consciousness, and of experiencing must be thought in terms of this decentering of material practice through ideological forms and relations. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 890 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

In ideology men do indeed express, not the relation between them and their conditions of existence [e.g., the socialization of labor under capitalism] but the way they “live” the relation between them and their conditions of existence [i.e., the way we live, through market relationships, the real conditions of capitalist production] … the expression of the relation between men and their “world” … the (overdetermined) unity of the real relation and the imaginary relation between them and the real conditions of existence. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 893 (#expands, via linked claim)

In this arena Althusser gives pride of place to what he calls “the School-Family” couple. He understands “ruling ideology” here in terms of his exposition (summarized earlier)—as the “system of ideas and representations” by means of which men understand and “live” an imaginary relation to their real conditions of existence: “What is represented in ideology is therefore not the system of the real relations which governs the existence of men, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relations in which they live.” — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

Related

• Ideologies connect to subjects through contingent, breakable articulations rather than necessity (similarity 0.87)
• Ideology expresses how people live their relation to conditions, not the relation itself. (similarity 0.86)
• Concepts like ideology and representation remain indispensable for understanding society (similarity 0.85)
• Ideologies are material relations enacted through institutions and practices (similarity 0.83)
• Ideology works by framing alternatives within a range rather than dictating thought. (similarity 0.83)
• Ideology is a material system of meaning, not merely false consciousness (similarity 0.83)
• Ideology represents imaginary relations to real conditions of existence (similarity 0.82)
• Ideology expresses lived imaginary relations rather than actual conditions of existence. (similarity 0.82)
• Ideology is actively created by people, not passively received from above. (similarity 0.82)
• Ideology’s imaginary relation functions to reproduce capitalist production relations (similarity 0.82)
• Market ideology fragments classes into individual consumers and hides production (similarity 0.81)
• Ideologies are false inflections of real relations, not falsehoods about them (similarity 0.81)
• Althusser’s theory of ideology derives from Lévi-Strauss’s unconscious cultural categories. (similarity 0.81)
• Treating experience as the ground of truth blocks a usable theory of ideology. (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology in everyday life matters more than formalized class-specific ideology (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Ideology represents imaginary relations to real conditions of existence #expands (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 909
• Ideology expresses lived imaginary relations rather than actual conditions of existence. #expands (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 893
• Ideology and material practice relate through systematic disjuncture, not correspondence #qualifies (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 890