False Consciousness Essay Sample free essay sample

Q. 3 Lukes’ 3rd dimension of power is controversial because it entails the usage of the construct of ‘false consciousness’ . Using illustrations of your ain. defend and / or review the hypothesis that there is such thing as ‘false consciousness’ . Power has ever been a contested and controversial subject and is one of the most cardinal constructs in the societal scientific disciplines. With respect to the construct of power. the issue of domination and what domination is has besides been widely debated. While most people would presume that domination is achieved by coercion or the open menace of countenances. a more interesting theory is that people consent to their ain domination. This thought seems eccentric as when we think of domination we imagine a ruthless dictator ruling the multitudes through fright and force or we think of an authoritarian personality trying to exercise complete control over a weaker subsidiary through menace and bullying. We will write a custom essay sample on False Consciousness Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What doesn’t come to mind when we think of domination is a individual volitionally leting another to exercise power over them and at the same clip being wholly unmindful to the fact that they are being dominated by some single or group who has hidden from that person at that place existent involvements and replaced them with involvements that favor themselves alternatively. The inquiry so is how is willing conformity to domination secured? This is a inquiry that is addressed by Steven Luke’s in his book ‘Power: A Extremist view’ . In his short essay Luke’s argues that the less powerful peoples wants may be a merchandise of a system which works against their involvements and obscures the truth in a way that suits the involvements of the dominant and powerful groups. This in kernel is what is referred to as False Consciousness. False consciousness refers to ideology ruling the consciousness of exploited groups and categories. which at the same clip justifies and perpetuates their development. The construct of false consciousness is Marxist in its roots and comes from Marxist accounts of the non-revolutionary nature of the labor and the theoretical resistance between scientific discipline and political orientation ( Haugaard. 2003 ) . In Marxist theory. false consciousness is fundamentally the consequence of the failure of the labor to recognize their existent stuff conditions in relation to the businessperson due to ideological control which the labor do non recognize they are under. However Luke’s criticizes the Marist attack seeing that the construct has pertinence in wider countries than category and besides because it â€Å"claims to hold some privileged entree external to the actors† ( Lukes. 2005 ) . Luke’s theory of power and false consciousness came approximately through an in-satisfaction with both Robert Dahl and Bachrach and Baratz behavioural focal point on power. Lukes argued that power had three faces. The public face as studied by Dahl and which relates to the survey of concrete discernible power. The 2nd dimension of power. which is the concealed face and was proposed by Bachrach and Baratz. This dimension points to the forces that keep possible controversial issues off the docket of determination doing spheres. However Lukes 3rd dimension of power expressions at an even more insidious face of power. Lukes looks beyond the analysis of discernible struggles. alternatively concentrating on power in its unseeable signifier in that people sometimes act volitionally in ways that are contrary to their best involvements. Harmonizing to Lukes the effects of power are non exhausted by decision-making and docket building but operate at a deeper degree that people are non w itting of. Lukes believed this to be the most insidious exercising of power because it keeps struggle from coming to the surface in the first topographic point. In this manner Lukes defines power in footings of involvements – ‘A exercising power over B when A affects B in a mode contrary to B’s interests’ ( Haugaard. 2003 ) . Whether such a thing as false consciousness exists has been a problematic subject since its outgrowth. Could it truly be that the things we believe to be our existent involvements are in fact non but alternatively are the consequence of deeply rooted signifiers of political socialisation and indoctrination? Have our perceptual experiences. knowledges and penchants been shaped in such a manner that we accept our function in the bing order of things because we see it as natural or as divinely ordained and good? The balance of this essay will try to undertake this controversial inquiry. One illustration which possible points to the being of false consciousness among the less powerful in society is the huge support for the Republican Party among the working category in the United States. It would look that the working category Republican elector is enduring from false consciousness. They have adopted the positions of their oppressors. False consciousness is the ground the lower category ballot for revenue enhancement cuts for the rich. something that will hold no direct benefit for them whatsoever. Advocates for the being of false consciousness would reason that these electors are being ideologically controlled but do non cognize it. Therefore their consciousness is false. fooled and diverted off from their ain existent involvements. Research on this country was carried out by Thomas Frank and discussed in his book ‘What’s the affair with Kansas? ’ . He used his place province of Kansas as an illustration as to why lower category Americans choose Republican and ballot against their ain economic and societal involvements. Frank recites that Kansas. which one time used to process against money power is now preponderantly republican and that this is non merely something that has happened in Kansas but is widespread throughout America. Frank argues that the growing of the Republican ballot among the working category is due to their scheme which involves taking economic sciences from treatments and alternatively concentrating on issues in which triumph is fundamentally impossible ( such as abortion. gun control Torahs etc ) . which feeds their bases sense of grudge. In this manner Frank shows how the Republican party who were one time a marker of category privilege are now the voice of 1000000s of ordinary Americans. It is difficult to deny the being of false consciousness among the low-class Republican electors when Frank argues that we live in an upside down universe where â€Å"blue-collar nationalists recite the Pledge while they strangle their life opportunities ; where little husbandmans cast their ballots for a Wall Street order that will finally force them off their land ; and where a group of frat male childs. attorneies. and CEOs has managed to convert the state that it speaks on behalf of the People† ( Frank. 2005 ) . Religion can be viewed as a false consciousness. It is the merchandise of adult male. the merchandise of those in power. Take birth control for illustration. The Catholic Church forbids birth control among practising members. which finally leads to big households. This has both wellness and fiscal damaging effects in that each consecutive gestation and birth topographic points extra wellness hazards onto the female parent and important economic load on parents of big households. Obviously this would propose for most households that the Catholic Church’s stance on birth control is non in their best involvement peculiarly over the longer term. However it is of benefit to the church in that their stance on birth control leads to a population growing among the Catholic population and hence a bigger flock over which they can govern. Compared to other faiths this sheer mass of population gives them important power over other faiths. Similarly. Moslems who participate in Ramadan could be argued to endure from a false consciousness. Ramadan can be seen as a manner to farther indoctrinate Muslims into their faith through a procedure of cognitive disagreement. During Ramadan Muslims must fast from dawn to sunset. which on the surface is non in the involvement of the practician but reinforces attachment to that faith. Psychological research has shown that cipher likes to be in a province of cognitive disagreement. which is when there is a gulf between our ideas and our actions. When such a disconnect exists it is our ideas more than our actions that we are likely to alter in order to take the gulf and reconstruct a province of disagreement. Therefore Muslims undergoing Ramadan are likely to happen their spiritual strong beliefs strengthened as their knowledges about their religion are brought more closely in line with the irrational behaviour of irregular drawn-out fasting. In appraising the grounds it would look that there is such a thing as false consciousness but there are jobs with this construct. If you describe person as holding false consciousness you are in kernel stating that that individual does non cognize what is in their ain best involvement – but you do. It assumes that a person’s involvements are cognizable external to that individual. Can one truly presume that their cognition is more true than the cognition of others? If we take the illustration above of Muslims who engage in Ramadan. to many Westerners spiritual patterns like these appear bizarre and it seems those that partake in these sorts of patterns suffer from false consciousness. On the other side of things though to presume that these Moslems are enduring from false consciousness is to state that we possess some sort of true consciousness in which we know what their existent involvements are better so they do. It besides entails an ethnocentric privileging of the position of western thoughts as ‘truth’ and ‘real’ ( Haugaard. 2003 ) . Another job with this construct is that because involvements are knowledges. they are self-validating. If a individual believes their involvements to be met so they are met. Whether they are really met is of no significance to that individual. because they are the agent in inquiry. they are the lone 1s who can state whether or non their demands have been met. In decision. the topic of false consciousness is a slippery one to undertake. False consciousness is non an nonsubjective construct but in existent fact is really subjective and is down to the single individual and their reading of what they believe are ‘real’ or ‘true’ involvements. As external perceivers who are we to state that workers taking occupations over rebellion or adult females taking homemaking over a calling suffer from false consciousness. As Lukes so right put at the terminal of his book â€Å"individuals are full of their ain ideas† and â€Å"no construct of power can of all time be wholly successful† ( Lukes. 2005 ) Mentions Frank. Thomas. ( 2005 ) What’s the affair with Kansas? : How conservativists won the bosom of America. Henry holt and Company. LLC. New York. NY. Haugaard. Mark. ( 2003 ) Power: A Reader. Manchester University Press. Lukes. Steven. ( 2005 ) Power: A Extremist View. Palgrave Macmillan. New York. NY. First published 1974.