Ideology
The most interesting part of these readings was how they explained and outlined the very construct of our society. It analyzed the means in which we established a system to dictate, organize, and essentially control the masses on all different levels and found means of categorizing and justifying the position of specific groups of people and the roles they play.
Capitalism is a large power that is in control of all things and has divided our nation and the world as a whole in two- people are either in control and behind the wheel of its driving forces, or supply to the consumption of its products, ideas, and the general system in place.
A comparison I made that again relates to my art class is how this notion has always been apparent throughout history. Propaganda has always been the first thing that comes to my mind in terms of “How do you govern and instill certain beliefs and values into a group of people?” Simply by selling it, of course! By visually representing certain ideas, certain ideologies, and getting people to invest because they are interested and looking for something (looking to be told what to do, buy, or learn). In the book, it discussed this being done in our modern society through outlets such as religion, the media (TV, radio, social platforms, etc) and our education system. Well, in Ancient Rome, the most powerful means of propaganda was art. In particular, the roman white marble statues and reliefs are what I’m referring to. Each emperor would produce a statue of themselves and identify through their portrait the style that best suited what people would want to hear and associate with their reign. It was highly manipulative- where the statue went, how it was placed (up high- “towards the gods”, in the center of town- overlooking the city, etc) how the person looked- be it old, young, a combination of both- what the figure was wearing, what the figure was doing- all these details referred back to Roman history, calling back to tradition and supplying the idea that Rome was in good hands. People felt secure, people felt safe- the universal symbols, the imagery being used, all was metaphorical and artistically presented to instill power to and for the people. This all may seem very simple but that’s mainly because that’s where this whole concept began. People have always been looking to be told where to go, how to feel, and what to do. It is amazing the amount of parallels that can be drawn between our society today and Rome- not to mention all the polished off products we ourselves have continued to utilize and incorporate in our modern world. Today, the system in place, the means of categorization, are all very high tech and aware of the value they both contain and exert. These concepts have merged in full with our society and caused for an overload of connectivity and understanding on all fronts- they are both beneficial and harmful to the world but necessary in order for the system to operate efficiently.
It is truly amazing how the modern form of ancient Roman statues is now advertisements seemingly hung in every public space. Your description of the figures made me think of photoshopping images to fit society's standard of beautiful. Our American ideology tells us that women need to be skinny, yet have some curve to them...always incredibly sexy, yet retain a look of innocence (and lets not forget the newest trend of large lips, but not too large). We plaster these images across our cities and towns telling people how they should look and act. People buy into it, too, because they want acceptance and to feel "normal" amongst others.
ReplyDeleteThis post has truly made me think deeply about this concept and reading. We can also relate this to political propaganda, which is seemingly everywhere, as well. I think this can correlate well to Karl Marx's Golden Rule. Those in politics seem to have the most gold and therefore the most rule: "The class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production” (39). Those who are the richest control most of society. However, this is dangerous if the ruling force does not have "good" ideologies. Marx argues that "each new class which puts itself in the place of one ruling before it is compelled…to present its interest as the common interest of all the members of society…it has to give its ideas the form of universality” (40). I am now thinking of Donald Trump and his conservative followers. Trump's "universal" ideologies and propaganda has made others feel as if their horrific words and actions are fair.