Week 3 02/01/22

Hall, in his breakdown of Marx’s description and common sense thinking of the market economy, explains that “the ruling ideological principles of the bourgeois lexicon, and the key political themes which, in our time, have made a powerful and compelling return to the ideological stage under the auspices of Mrs. Thatcher and neo-liberalism,” (33-34). In terms of ideology, how does neo-liberalism bring forward ideological discourse of market circuit trends and does its existence completely alter or complicate Hall’s argument on Marx’s theory of ideology? 

Hall later states that “Ideas only become effective if they do, in the end, connect with a particular constellation of social forces. In that sense, ideological struggle is a part of the general social struggle for mastery and leadership—in short for hegemony.” Hall, using the framework of Gramsi, argues that these political forces as ideology exists and strive for “hegemonic domination.” If we examine forms of ideology in the realm of hegemonic domination, what are the implications of ideologies set to break down existing power dynamics and challenge the system? Are the alternative ideologies playing into the hands of hegemonic domination and does that challenge the purpose of certain ideologies at their core?