which is based on “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange” Barry 156.
2.2.3. Marxist Theory on Class Consciousness
In order to achieve the classless society, the dictator proletariat society must be instilled. And the proletariat, the workers, must be aware of this. In short they have
to be class conscious. According to the Oxford Guide to Philosophy, the term consciousness involves experience and awareness Honderich ed. 160. According to
Online Dictionary of Social Sciences, class consciousness means “The awareness of individuals in a particular social class that they share common interests and a
common social situation. Class consciousness is associated with the development of a ‘class-for-itself’ where individuals within the class unite to pursue their shared
interests” Online Dictionary of Social Sciences. Marx argues that the awareness of the workers arises not from their own
spiritual search, instead, it is determined by their social condition. It is dependent on the material condition, namely the economic condition, and ideological situation that
prevail in the society Tucker 4. As Ernest Mandel points out, that in Marxian proposition:
The dominant ideology of every society is the ideology of the dominant class in the sense that the latter has control over the means
of ideological production which society has at its disposal the church, school, mass media, etc. and uses the means in its own class interests.
As long as class rule is on the upswing, stable and hence hardly questioned, the ideology of the dominant class will also dominate the
consciousness of the oppressed class. Mandel, “Bourgeois Ideology and Proletarian Class Consciousness”.
Thus, as a rule, Mandel points out, that the oppressed will formulate class struggle in society.
The problem in capitalist society, is that there is a control tat takes form in ideological manipulation and “mass assimilation of the ruling class’ ideological
production” that form some kind of “stability” in the society which, in fact, hinders the emergence of class consciousness of the working people itself. This control is
exerted through the internalization of commodity relation which is highly related to reification of labor, as Marx states, and the transformation of the labor power into
commodity. In addition, the control also takes form in the exploitation of workers and the lack of leisure time.
And to overturn this control, all what is needed is a revolution by which the oppressed class the workers can free themselves from the
ideology of the ruling class Mandel, “Bourgeois Ideology and Proletarian Class Consciousness”.
Georg Lukacs, in his History and the Class Consiousness, further adds that when talking about class consciousness, it implies “a class-conditioned
unconsciousness of ones own socio-historical and economic condition” that
seemingly governs the whole life in the society. In other words, there exists a “false consciousness,” which means “the social awareness that is mystified by ideology and
ignorant of its own class basis” Honderich ed. 289. In capitalist system of society, the workers are then isolated from their own cause. Lukacs holds that:
if a class thinks the thoughts imputable to it and which bear upon its interests right through to their logical conclusion and yet fails to strike
at the heart of that totality, then such a class is doomed to play only a subordinate role.
Lukacs,
“
Class Consciousness”. Such false consciousness, manifests in the workers’ passivity, aimlessness and,
although they may have won some few battles, they “are doomed to ultimate defeat,” to borrow Lukacs words. This means that the control over the mass population, in this
respect, the working class, that leads to the workers’ false consciousness is a real challenge to the consciousness of the working class itself. Therefore, arousing the
workers’ class consciousness means challenging the prevailing socio-historical, ideological and economic condition that have been historically established in society
by the ruling power.
In order to overcome such false consciousness, Georg Lukacs points out that once the workers are conscious, they must organize the whole society in accordance
with their own interests, not the interests of the privileged-few.
2.2.4. Theory of Marxist Literary Criticism
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