“Perception is Reality” and other lies found in current political discourse

Realizing that we are living in a ‘post-truth’ world I think it is important to revisit a much older debate between the Idealist (aka Hegelian) vision of the world versus the Materialist (aka Marxist) vison of the world. I am currently writing a paper for presentation in the upcoming ACTHUS conference to be held this summer in Portland, Oregon. One of the items I will be addressing is the need for many of the social science disciplines to become reacquainted with the historical-materialist philosophies in general and the Marxist tradition(s) in particular. Given the incredible times through which we are living through I think this shift is absolutely imperative.

One of the elements that made the rise of Neoliberal ideology so powerful is its ability to ‘naturalize’ things that are in fact human constructions. Some of these things are steeped in a slow and arduous historical development process undertaken by the ruling class. A resource to understand these developments would be to look at the work of David Harvey (“A Brief History of Neoliberalism”) and Quinn Slobodian (“Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism”) among so many others too numerous to mention. The point is that some of what we simply call ‘the way things are’ truly have been constructed by the owning class over a longer historical period of time than most of us are accustomed to thinking about. This has created a sort of truncated capacity among virtually all of society to imagine anything outside of a very limited and circumscribed reality. The term Capitalist Realism was coined by Mark Fisher. In his work (by the same name) he posits that the Capitalist class has created the conditions by which there is “the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.” Part of the way this ‘false consciousness’ is achieved is by a systematic erasure of all manners by which ‘ideas’ come into existence. This especially includes the material/historical conditions that are used to create, disseminate and maintain certain ideas. This includes the very concrete manner in which certain ideas are funded, spread, re-enforced, rewarded etc. One of the greatest understandings brought forth by the rise of a historical-materialist methodology is to see how virtually all ideas and social constructs are always at the behest of certain communities and equally at the detriment of other communities.

When I was a kid working on the fields (this was true even years later) I would notice that we were paid a certain amount of money for our labor (as an example, picking apples). I would later see these very same items (apples) priced at the store. It made no sense to me how little we were paid, given how much the apples “cost” at the store. I began to wonder where did all the other “money” go to that was being made by the selling of these items. I of course later learned the tired old ‘myths’ of the risks taken by the Capitalist (Land owning) people who we worked for. I can honestly say that I never saw a landowner have seizures from working in the unrelenting heat of the fields. As a child I did, more than once see, this in my time out there. Years (decades) later I saw video of miners working some miles in the earth ‘risking’ life and limbs for their work. I suspect that to make anything many people ‘risk’. But I was always amazed at how the rewards and the risks seemed not to be proportionate in any way that seemed just/fair. The reason I bring this up is because I am constantly amused/infuriated when I hear people talk about how Karl Marx (and Marxist theory) incites or creates ‘class warfare.’ Most members of the working class don’t need a 19th century secular Jewish Brother to tell them they are being screwed! But one of the benefits of Marxism and the Historical-Materialist method is that it allows us to place words around some elements of our experience. It allows us to call forth a more cogent expression of the quotidian experiences of the working class. It also allows us some explanatory expression for the relationships that are ‘mystified’ within a Capitalist system. Including the question “How come farm workers were sleeping under bridges after working picking apples all day and the owners of the land seemed to have homes (sometimes more than one!)”? Hmmm? Truly a mystery for the ages?

Another wonderful insight from Marx and the Historical-Materialist school is the now ubiquitous notion that all ideas are historically conditioned. Marx is famous for having said that “The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.” and in another location he elaborates by saying

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. 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, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”

What is most important to me about this insight is that it is so often overlooked in our historical milieu. We now sometimes laugh at the absurdity of the Divine Right of Kings, knowing that this idea was birthed, maintained, and perpetuated by the ruling class at the time. Specifically, the feudalistic aristocracy of that historical period. What is so often forgotten is that this insight is equally true now. I once saw a bumper stick that said, “If you think the system is working, asking someone who isn’t” We completely and ignorantly presuppose that the owning class (and all their ‘intellectual’ leaders/representatives) say “This is the best we can do” or “This is the best system we can come up with in all of human history” (the old End of History thesis! LOL) are somehow telling us the pure and unvarnished truth. This is the one time that the ruling class ideas are not going to ‘appear’ as the ‘natural’ ideas of this age. While at some level many people know this isn’t true the moment you bring up the possibility of how these insights are historically conditioned based on the relations of production that allow human existence to exist you are called………..you guessed it…A MARXIST. (clutch pearls to chest in a dramatic fashion!)

I can’t tell you how many times I have been heard by well educated people the phrase “That sounds like Marxism” as though that was a cogent, insightful critique or even an actual thought! My sarcastic response is that if Marx called the chair, I am sitting in at this moment a chair some people might be tempted to call this simply a “Marxist analysis” or “Marxist interpretation” which may be true, but in fact, it is also a fucking chair! You don’t have to believe everything Marx said is right (thereby being a dogmatic Marxist) but you also can’t be dismissive of a thought uttered by Marx, Marxist (or the Historical-Materialist school) simply out of hand because it contradicts your perception. Perception is not reality!