So last time in this series, we talked about Marx’s perspective on why people tend to idolize artists. After all, what teen hasn’t cherished dreams of being the next Hannah Montana? That can’t have been just me, can it? 

Marx’s first point on this was that artistic creation represents a kind of labor that is purely free and self-expressive. As such, it is free from the kind of wage-slave druggery (ie, alienation) that is typical of all other labor in a capitalist system. Artists get to choose what they create. And since what we create is the highest expression of who we are, artists alone are truly free under capitalism. Though of course that’s not really true, and a lot of artists struggle with the conflict between the demands of their fans (the market) and their own need for creative self-expression. And honestly that just makes them even more relatable, since we all face that conflict on a smaller scale in our own lives.

But Marx ain’t no one-trick pony. He’s actually got a whole other explanation for why we love artists. You may want to sit down for this one – turns out you’ve been brainwashed. I know, I know, you always thought it would happen to someone else. Actually you were right about that, it did happen to someone else, in fact it happened to everyone else. And you too, of course.

Let me break down what I mean here. You see, according to Marx, every stage of human civilization is defined by a certain mode of production, i.e., a certain way of organizing human activity to meet our needs. In the past there were tribal societies and feudalism, but today our mode of production is capitalism. But this isn’t just some fun fact about our society. Our mode of production actually conditions everything about our lives, including our jobs, our relationships, our art, and yes, even our very thinking. In fact, Marx was one of the first philosophers to imagine that how we think might be affected by the conditions of our daily existence (wow what a wild idea!). 

Marx gave a specific name to this pattern of thinking that a mode of production creates and perpetuates; he called it “ideology.” The ideology of a mode of production serves to give it a kind of rational legitimacy and helps it to maintain itself against dissent. For example, back in the days of kings & queens, there was an idea called the ‘divine right of kings.’ Basically, kings were supposed to rule us because they were appointed by God. How convenient. Now, to us in the modern day this idea might strike us as totally backward. But that’s because we aren’t in the feudal system anymore. Back then, it was held in high esteem and a lot of great minds actually argued in favor of it. What else could they do? They were in thrall to the ideology of their time; that kings would be appointed by God just seemed natural and right to them.

So what is the ideology of capitalism? Well, it’s a complicated nest of adders here, but there are a few core beliefs that we can pick out. First, one central belief of capitalism is that the market is the absolute judge of a thing’s value. Whatever the market price of something is, that is its real worth. Things that can’t be placed on the market don’t really have value. That’s why you have to take your fun little candle-making hobby and try to sell those candles on Etsy – I’m sorry, but if you can’t make money off it then you’re just wasting your time bud. Related to this is a second belief: that the market is fair. Anyone can do well if they just work hard. Any product will sell if it is a good product. You’ve probably heard this kind of stuff all the time, it’s one of the core ideas of the whole American Dream. Capitalist dream, more like. 

The third and last belief we’ll deal with here is that the primary goal of life is consumption. If people just bought the stuff they needed to live more or less contentedly, sales would plateau and profits would stop growing. Capitalism needs you to need, it wants you to want. Ya just gotta have that fancy new phone, ya just go to that new movie, ya just gotta go to that show, ya just gotta, ya just gotta gotta.

So how do these three beliefs lead us to dream of one day being up on that stage, singing our hearts out to thousands of adoring fans? Well, each contributes in a different way. First let’s take the idea that the market determines a thing’s true value. If you believe this, then you can’t really just sing fun songs to yourselves and a couple friends. Your songs are worthless unless they turn you a profit. Your creation’s worth – and hence your worth – is determined by album sales, concert turnout, radio play, TV appearances, and all that sweet sweet cash. So dreaming of being an artist, idolizing rock stars… it’s all really just dreaming of having your intrinsic human creativity affirmed in the only way that capitalism can affirm it – by getting paid, baby. 

Next let’s look at the idea that the market is fair. This one really ought to get you down. The market is fair so if you aren’t a rock star, you really have only yourself and your bad music to blame. Where the first element of capitalist ideology told you how to get your creativity affirmed, this one forever dangles that hope of affirmation in front of you. If it weren’t for the idea that the market is fair, you’d probably make peace with your bad luck, give up on your dreams, and go back to making burgers. After all, making burgers is a time-honored and respectable profession. But with this belief in place, your failure isn’t luck or chance, it’s weakness! Just buckle down and work harder! And when you’re a 60-yr old car salesman still talking about that one time you got that part in a commercial… well your big break is just around the corner, don’t worry, you’ve paid your dues now. So we idolize our artist heroes not just because they have the affirmation we crave, but because we think that that kind of affirmation is possible for us too.

Last we come to the idea that life is ultimately about consuming as many delicious cranberry vodka martinis as possible. Ok maybe about consuming some chocolate cake too. And going to a cool party in a badass outfit. Dang, I’ve been doing it all wrong.

You may have noticed that a lot of popular music has lyrics that center around how much money the singer has, how many people they’ve slept with, how many drugs they do, and so on. In other words, these singers are talking about how much they consume. Implicit in all this is the idea that consumption is cool. These artists are both victims and missionaries of capitalist ideology. They clearly seem to believe that the goal of life is consumption, and they spread that message to everyone who listens to their music, thus perpetuating the cycle of ever-increasing consumption that capitalism depends on. Since they consume so much and it makes them so cool, no wonder we wish we could be them. I can almost see the fat cat record execs rubbing their little furry paws together right now.

So there you have it. We love artists because they have all the things capitalism tells us we should want. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are of course people and artists that try to cut against this grain, that try to show us that we can have value outside the market, that we don’t need to be defined by what we buy and what clothes we wear. Maybe that message is too often drowned out by the booming voices of the capitalist propaganda machine. But at least once our eyes are opened to the way ideology works, we can take charge of our thinking and make deliberate decisions about what we want to value and how we want to live.