POL 315
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MARXISM
owned by tiny elite, the serfs work the land and the surplus value
expropriated by great nobles will develop institutions in their
superstructures- that will be beneficial to the powerful aristocratic class
of landowners. The educational systems tend to justify these political
situations and religion tends to be structured in a hierarchical fashion.
For Marx, religion is "the opiate of the people", because he believed that
it drugged them, numbing their senses and disposing them to put up with
their wretched existence so that they would be rewarded in a "mythical"
after life.
The Church acts to support the capitalistic systems although it is
certainly not difficult to find circumstances that contradict Marx's views
about how economics predisposes society; one would be amiss not to
recognise that indeed there is much to be learned from his analysis. It is
true, for example, that the areas that developed extensive capitalist
systems-England, Holland, Switzerland, Northern Germany,
Scandinavia, and the United States also accepted Protestantism as their
dominant religious form. Even in Catholic France, which also built a
substantial industrial base, the Huguenots (French Protestants) own a
disproportionately large percentage of the capital wealth.
It is also true that societies make concerted efforts to socialise their
citizens. That is, they take great pains to inculcate in their people the
dominant values and norms of society and these attitudes invariably
accrue to the benefit of the people who control the system. In the United
States, for example, American Government is a required course in most
states at the elementary, high school, and college levels. Why is this
subject thought to be so important? The study of government assumes
that democracy depends on a well-informed citizenry as a requirement,
yet these courses (especially in the lower grades) do more than simply
inform students. Great effort is expended to develop a positive attitude
among students about their system of government. Clearly, this example
illustrates the conscious attempt by society's leaders to instill in each
generation the values that society espouses. Political power, in Marxist
theory, comes from economic power. The power of the ruling class
therefore stems from its ownership and control of the means of
production.
In the same way, the position of the dominant class is supported by
beliefs and values which are systematically generated by the
infrastructure. As noted earlier Marx referred to the dominant values of
class societies as ruling class ideology, since they justify and legitimize
ruling class domination and project a distorted picture of reality. For
example, the emphasis on freedom in capitalist society, illustrated by
phrases such as 'the free market', 'free democratic societies' and 'the free
world', is an illusion that disguises the wage slavery of the proletariat.
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