Marxist and Other Ideological Approaches to Rhetoric
I. Society's structure and economic mechanisms determine the rhetoric of that society.
A. Who can speak? E.g., children and students were not empowered until the revolt over the Vietnam War. Southern Blacks were not empowered until the modern civil rights movement. Women. Gays. Etc.
B. Money speaks: movies, television, advertising.
1. Take the case of the co-ed who wears Calvin Klein jeans thinking they give her a unique look.
a. She is a product of the cotton industry. She has not real choice.
b. She has chosen Calvin Klein because of his manipulated advertising.
c. She has chosen Calvin Klein because it is available, the result of cheap labor.
d. She feels distinctive in Klein's clothes because she believethe advertising that tells her it is a distinct look.
2. It is a "false consciousness" supported by societal rhetoric and advertising that convinces her that her choice was made freely and is individual. That is, the ideology is so pervasive, it cannot be comprehended by most people.
II. Societal ideologies, which keep people in control, leave evidence that is a rhetorical text. The Marxist attack on the church is based on the view that religion is the opiate of the people, it keeps them under the thumb of this world by promising them something better in the next. Hence, most Marxists are atheists. In this example, prayers are the textual fragments of the basic underlying religious script.
A. Each separate text (ad) is really part of a larger script. All the ads support capitalism and materialism. All the movies support a certain set of moral values.
B. The textual fragments hide in naturalized events. E.g, the corporations that support the Olympics or identify with ecological themes. Worse yet, the events themselves reinforce the corporate agenda. E.g., competition, nationalism reinforced by Olympics.
III. The Marxist goal is to de-mystify ideology and provoke a dialectic that will force a new synthesis. They want to de-mystify ideologies because they are part of false consciousness and prevent the advance of civilization.
A. [Explain dialectical materialism based on Hegel as moving society toward its ultimate telos. All apparently complex and spiritual phenomenon are reducible to material or material events; therefore, complex stuperstructures can be understood in terms of underlying, material structures.]
B. De-mystification is achieved by:
1. Showing who made the message. That is, who paid for it, who wrote it really, who delivered it, to whom was it delivered. Do not allow the text to become aestheticized. That is, just because it appears in a story on the screen doesn't mean there isn't a hidden agenda that reinforces the capitalist message. Mrs. Arras goes to Paris a television movie starring Angela Landsbury based on the novel by Paul Gallico is all about getting a dress from Christian Dior. All the other crap in the movie is just an attempt to aestheticize the materialist message.
C. It is also done by revealing the strategies of the ideological.
1. Structural strategies: e.g., French as the diplomatic language gives France in particular and Romance language countries in general an advantage. It marginalizes African nations. e.g., structures of the university: tenured v. non-tenured, part-time vs. full-time, administration v. faculty v. students, the structure of the classroom (mass lecture v. 30 person classroom v. seminar).
2. Homogenizing strategies: a. downplay individualism, individual desires etc. b. play up categorical qualities, commonality. c. stimulate collective consciousness (Fads) (us v. them)
3. Utopian strategies: a. provide privileges b. provide heaven: the lottery, the welfare state, the ivory tower. 4. Strategies of omission and marginalization: a. What you don't know won't hurt you: Iran-Contra b. Don't mention the poor and they won't exist. c. Alternate life styles. Role models. Look at commercials. At one time there were no blacks in them; now there are no gays or lesbians.
IV. The Marxist goal is to tear down the oppressive structures and replace them with rule by the proletariat. This may require a dictatorship at first, but eventually the state will wither away and be replaced with a socialist state that takes from each according his/her abilities, and gives to each according to his/her needs.
A. This "just enough for everybody" philosophy has two major flaws. First, the state never withers away and second, there is no incentive to drive its economic engine.
B. Rhetorically it must first reveal the strategies of oppression used by the powerful and the bourgeoisie to control the proletariat (poor and workers). (See above)
C. Then it must use the very strategies it opposed in the oppressors to control its own group. E.g. Workers of the world unite = homogenizing, collectivizing, utopian.
1. Jacques Lacan's analysis of Lenin. "The land to the people."Actual consciousness (current needs and wants) v. potential consciousness (the best we are capable of imagining we can achieve.)