Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 16:18:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: Kevin Wehr <kwehr@ssc.wisc.edu>
To: Sociology Graduate Students -- International <socgrad@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Re: questions
In-Reply-To: <199705092008.OAA23671@csf.Colorado.EDU>
Message-Id: <Pine.OSF.3.95.970509161152.2230C-100000@elaine.ssc.wisc.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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On Fri, 9 May 1997, M.HOOVER wrote:
> it is a feeling among some of the students here that it might hurt your
> grades if you disagree with this way of thinking.  We have one
> professor who believes that any criticism of Marx is a product of
> "ideology".  Does anyone else out there feel this pressure to
> conform to a particular way of thinking?

hmmm.  we have had quite the interesting discussion of ideology here at
this listserv a few weeks ago...so without bringing all that up again, my
recommendation is always to inform yourself about the individual who is in
a position of social power over y0ou, and learn more about the subject, or
as much at least, as they know...that way you can argue successfully.  in
this instance, i would make an argument out of the work of Maclellan or
Eagleton that ideology is a much larger concept than just that which is
not Marxism.  Marxism itself must be examined as ideological.
Incidentally, Marx was never clear on this issue, he wrote several
slightly different versions of his thoughts on ideology, and they are not
consistent.  Don't get me wrong, people can be inconsistent, especiallyw
hen they have long careers.  One of my favorite expressions that MArx
invokes regarding false consciousness is the metaphor of the camera
obscura: false consciousness is just an inverted and reversed version
of the "correct" social reality...recall the famous saying: analogy is
the last refuge of an intellectual scoundrel.
In any case, you might pressure your prof. to clarify
what s/he means by ideological, and then fire back some critiques of hsi
defintion.  that is, if you're the conforntational type.  if not, you
can always punt.

--Kevin

mediocrity thrives on standardization


Kevin Wehr
kwehr@ssc.wisc.edu
608.256.8961