SOC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Class Consciousness, False Consciousness, Proletariat

• School: Irvine Valley College
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1
• Professor: brown

Document Summary

Ideology can be defined as a set of beliefs and values that support and justify the ruling class of a society. Ideologies are present in all societies where there are systematic and ingrained inequalities between groups. The dominant ideology of a society, then, is one that maintains the position of the ruling elite. To explain this situation, marx used the concepts of false consciousness and class consciousness. False consciousness is present when people believe in and defend the very system that oppresses them. Marx would argue that the people who need help in our highly competitive society are the very people who rarely ask for it because they suffer from false consciousness they do not recognize or appreciate how the system exploits them. However futile false consciousness may sound, marx and engels believed that people could liberate themselves from oppression through class consciousness.