SOCIOL 2L03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Opiate, False Consciousness
19 May 2016
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Document Summary
False consciousness-people were not aware of their own relationship to production. Idea of external, objective reality as opposed to perception of individuals who trade labour for money. Marx doesn"t like religion which can translate into media representations of reality. Religion says hard work leads to success, likes divine right of kings, obedience to authority trails in life lead to redemption in the next life. Religion was a state function back in marx"s day, and would explain worldly events in the same way news media explains events today. Responsible for flow and control of knowledge ran schools, arbitrated over right and wrong, administered hospitals etc. False consciousness can be applied to the media, as stories of redemption, self-sacrifice, sanctity of social/economic relationships pervade media. Engels says ideas are reflections of reality that might be either true or false. Ruling material force is also ruling ideological force.
