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Ideology and Religion

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Ideology and Religion 27 VWUXJJOHWRGD\$VKHSXWLWKLPVHOI Ideology and Religion GL̆HUHQWKHUHKXQWHUVDQG¿VKHUVZLWKRXWFDW Peadar O’Grady ‘The Catholic Church has 0F$OHHVH¶VVWDWHPHQWFDPHDIWHUWKHVXSSRVHGO\OLE - long since been a primary, eral Pope Francis cancelled the venue in Rome for a global carrier of the toxic catholic women’s conference because she and two other virus of misogyny. Its leader- speakers were known to support gay rights. It was also ship has never sought a cure weeks after a scandal erupted in Chile where the Pope for that virus though the refused to listen to local church members who com- cure is freely available: its plained when a priest who covered up child abuse was name is equality. Down the promoted to bishop. The metaphor of the ‘virus of mi- two-thousand-year highway of Christian history came sogyny’ was apt. First because of the upsurge in interest the ethereal divine beauty of the nativity, the cruel in women’s oppression triggered by Trump’s election, VDFUL¿FHRIWKHFUXFL¿[LRQWKHKDOOHOXMDKRIWKHUHV - the victory of the marriage equality campaign and the urrection and the rallying cry, that wakes me up and rapid growth among young people of the popularity of gets me through the day each day, of the great com- the pro-choice campaign growing in leaps and bounds. mandment to love one another. But, down that same Second because the word virus evokes both the notion highway came these man-made toxins of misogyny, of a transmissible disease but also its modern usage of of homophobia, to say nothing of shameful anti-Sem- a piece of code or language that causes destruction and itism, with their legacy of damaged and wasted lives which requires active methods to combat it. and deeply embedded institutional dysfunction.’ The dramatic changes in religious practices and social ÀLFWVDWZRUNLQWKHVRFLHW\:HFDQJDXJHWKHLUUHOHYDQW Former President, Mary McAleese attitudes of the Irish population in the past few decades on International Women’s Day 2018 1 arise in a context of relatively recent social changes, accelerating in the 1960s, from a predominantly rural his statement on the legacy of religion, from a tra- agricultural population to a society of a predominantly Tditional catholic conservative -- a hopeful message urbanised working class. The relationship between so- RIDFKXUFKKLVWRU\RIVX̆HULQJDQGORYHRQWKHRQHKDQG cial change and prevailing ideas and practices may often and a depressing message of the same church’s history be a one-sided account of how ideas change social cir- of oppression and hatred on the other -- is a useful start- cumstances rather than vice versa. Revelations of child ing point for a discussion of Marx’s view of religion and abuse certainly played a role in hastening the decline of ideology. 2 Ideologies and religions are systems of ideas the church but the loosening of the grip of the tradition- and practices and, as we shall see below, a recurring al pillars of Fianna Fáil and the Catholic hierarchy were and important question has been whether religion al- evident by the 1960s and 1970s well before the church ways serves to support the rich and powerful, the ruling DEXVH VFDQGDOV EHJDQ WR FDXVH VLJQL¿FDQW GDPDJH WR class, as part of a dominant ideology, or, whether there church authority. can be a progressive role for religion. This also raises Marx was scathing about accounts of history that did the question of how any set of ideas comes to dominate not question the reasons for human actions: and whether the ruling class have to twist and distort “Whilst in ordinary life every shopkeeper is very well these ideas to suit their interests or can elements of a able to distinguish between what somebody professes dominant ideology be in some way true? to be and what he really is, our historians have not yet IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 28 won even this trivial insight. They take every epoch at its relations of production constitutes the economic word and believe that everything it says and imagines structure of society, the real foundation, on which QDWXUH RI FDSLWDOLVP LV KLGGHQ µ$ IDLU GD\¶V SD\ IRU D about itself is true.’ rises a legal and political superstructure and to which IDLU GD\¶V ZRUN¶ FDQ VHHP VXSHU¿FLDOO\ WUXH ZKHQ H[ While certainly not universal today among historians FRUUHVSRQGGH¿QLWHIRUPVRIVRFLDOFRQVFLRXVQHVV this tendency to explain changes in human action with The mode of production of material life conditions the FDQEHKDUGWRTXDQWLI\)LQDOO\WKHH̆HFWRQZRUNHUVRI changes in human ideas is still more common in public social, political and intellectual life process in general. WKHPDVUHQWWD[HVRUZKDWHYHU$QGVXFKVXUSOXV discourse than the reciprocal role of social change in al- It is not the consciousness of men that determines FDQWKHQEHXVHGWR¿QDQFHWKHSURGXFWLRQDQG XUDOFDWDVWURSKHRQHWKDWKDVUHDODQGPDWHULDOH̆HFWV tering both actions and ideas. their being, but, on the contrary, their social being GLVWULEXWLRQRILGHDVZKLFKUHÀHFWDQGVXSSRUWWKH that determines their consciousness’. 4 RIFDSLWDOLVWSURGXFWLRQDQG¿QDQFHLQWKDWFROODSVH7KH Marx and Ideology ,WLVKHUHWKDW0DU[¿UVWRXWOLQHVWKHQRWLRQRIDEDVH Born in 1818 in the city of Triers, near the French bor- and a superstructure: an overview of an economic foun- QRW WKDW LW GH¿QHV RXU SHUFHSWLRQV LQ VRPH RQHVLGHG der of Rhineland Prussia (modern Germany) to a Jew- GDWLRQRUµEDVH¶WKDWLQÀXHQFHVDSROLWLFDODQGLGHRORJ - ish father, a lawyer who was forced to convert to Lu- LFDOFXOWXUDOµVXSHUVWUXFWXUH¶ZKLFKWKHQFDQLQÀXHQFH (DJOHWRQGH¿QHVLWµ$QLGHRORJLFDOQRWLRQLVRQHZKLFK theran Protestantism to avoid anti-Semitic laws, Karl the nature of the economic base. While the complexi- Marx came of age in a time of rapid social and economic ty of these interactions should not be underestimated change and revolution in Europe. The French revolution 0DU[¶VNH\SRLQWRIWKHSULPDU\µFRQGLWLRQLQJ¶H̆HFWRI and the Industrial revolution centred in Britain inspired the economic base is important. a ferment of political and philosophical ideas. Of course the ideas of the large majority of the poor From his student days and throughout his life, Marx KDYHQHYHUKDGDQHTXDOLQÀXHQFHWRWKRVHRIWKHULFK DVVRFLDWH WKH UHYROXWLRQDU\ VRFLDOLVW $QWRQLR *UDPVFL developed a ‘materialist’ view that ideas do not have a RZQHUV RI ODQG RU IDFWRULHV DQG WKLV D̆HFWV ZKDW WKH life of their own, that they are developed and passed on ‘prevailing’ or ‘dominant’ ideas are at any particular only in the material context of the productive activities time and place in history: of real people in a society where control of production ‘The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the is the key to social power. For Marx, it was neither the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material intervention of a supernatural external force of gods force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellec- that was the force behind our ideas, nor was it the ideas tual force. The class which has the means of material of great leaders from an elevated position of insight or production at its disposal has control at the same time WDNHQIRUJUDQWHGDVDµQDWXUDO¶DQGXQLYHUVDOO\EHQH¿ ability that was the primary force but instead our practi- over the means of mental production, so that thereby, FLDOVWDWHRID̆DLUVDV9ROWDLUHVDWLULFDOO\SXWLWLQ cal experience of the world, especially in the crucial area generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the of our human relationship with the production of life’s means of mental production are subject to it.’ needs and wants. Marx emphasised our experience of Obviously producing ideas in a form that can be what he called the ‘mode of production’, the sum total passed on takes time, skill and material resources. To of the organisation of production of material human pass on ideas orally requires a regular audience; writ- life and the relations that go with it as it develops and ing things down and distributing them requires literacy, changes over time. paper, ink, a printing press, transport and so on. Who- FLDODQGHFRQRPLFVWUXFWXUHRUµEDVH¶LWVHOI$IHWLVKLV Marx repeatedly outlines in his writing this view of ever has the resources to do this will obviously tend to where the ideas in our heads or ‘consciousness’ primar- produce and favour ideas which they think are in their ily comes from. In summary as he put it: own interests. ‘...Circumstances make men just as much as men Scott Mann describes well this process in history: make circumstances’. 3 ‘The key concept here is that of the economic and as he outlined in more detail: (material) surplus; the material wealth generated ‘In the social production of their life, men enter into over and above that required to maintain (and $W D VLPSOH OHYHO QR PDWWHU KRZ PXFK D VRFLDOLVW GH¿QLWHUHODWLRQVWKDWDUHLQGLVSHQVDEOHDQGLQGH - ongoingly reproduce) the productive forces (the pendent of their will, relations of production which workers, their tools, the fertility of the land etc). For FRUUHVSRQGWRDGH¿QLWHVWDJHRIGHYHORSPHQWRIWKHLU substantial surplus is required in order to sustain RSSUHVVLRQ DQG QRW MXVW QDWXUDO IRUFHV OLNHV ÀRRGV RU material productive forces. The sum total of these such specialised institutions of ideas-production and IRUFH$WDPRUHFRPSOH[OHYHOFDSLWDOLVPSURYLGHVWKH 29 distribution as civil service bureaucracies, temples, appearance of fair exchange because the exploitative churches, religious schools, universities, newspapers, QDWXUH RI FDSLWDOLVP LV KLGGHQ µ$ IDLU GD\¶V SD\ IRU D TV stations etc. The rulers are able to use their IDLU GD\¶V ZRUN¶ FDQ VHHP VXSHU¿FLDOO\ WUXH ZKHQ H[ - FRUUHVSRQGGH¿QLWHIRUPVRIVRFLDOFRQVFLRXVQHVV monopoly power over the means of
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