Our society is formed by a series of principles and ideas that guide our behavior on a daily basis, without not always being aware of it.

This set of ideas that guides the thinking of individuals in a society is called ideology . Consciously or unconsciously, every man follows a certain ideology, as he seeks an ideal for life.

Relations with our family, with school and religion, allow us to get in touch with the first ideas and values ​​that form society, preparing us for social interaction.

Religion is structured around a series of ideas and beliefs constituting its own ideology.

In the 19th century, the thinker Karl Marx questioned the meaning of ideology, proposing its reinterpretation.

For Marx, ideology – these ideas that guide us to live in society – prevents us from seeing reality by providing us with a unique vision that should not be questioned.

A good example of this are ideas such as “work dignifies man” and “whoever hopes to always achieve”, which seek to establish positive values ​​associated with work and discipline, strengthening the idea that personal effort brings economic and social rewards. In this way, being a winner before your peers, this image strengthens the myth of the self made man (the man who makes himself).

Thus, for Marx, the main objective of ideology in capitalist society is to make the values ​​that favor the performance of work universal, which gives the feeling that everyone who works can succeed, while those who do not are destined to failure.

Thus, in order to combat the negative character of ideology, it is necessary that we have universal access to scientific knowledge (true knowledge), since, having this knowledge, each citizen is able to recognize reality as it really is, making decisions that are effectively yours and not influenced by other means and subjects.

The large amount of advertising and advertising messages currently convince us that the products sold are essential for our personal happiness, a negative example of the application of ideology, in this case, aimed at encouraging consumption.

The Ideology of Work

The theme of Work , is widely talked about and considered important for society. It is used for activities of vegetables, artists, students, etc.

In different times and social classes, work was exalted or despised. Work has even been considered by Catholicism as a penance, and redemption, in Protestantism, as a means of enrichment.

In capitalism, on the other hand, there is a change in relations with medieval theories, with a predominance of productivism, even reaching the point of forcing people to work, who exalt work as a source of wealth.

In each era, new tactics appear to use work as a source of wealth for the strongest, not for the worker.

Examples such as factories occupied in Paris, at the request of political reforms, caused workers to leave work to go on strike. This shows that they did not want to continue with the discontent and exploitation to which they were subjected.

While we are not sleeping, we are in activity, in which work prevails. And people need good training to be able to work. In some cases the opposite is true, many times a boy starts to work at a very young age, becoming a pride for his parents; therefore, you can even leave your studies to dedicate yourself more to your work.

Work can glorify someone who did not own anything, and through work he was able to do it, due to his own effort and not the kindness of bosses.

Every day the queue at employment agencies increases, people suffer from unemployment. When you are out of a job, you often seem to be someone who has time to have fun and do whatever you want, but in reality they are people with fear, shame and tension on their faces, feeling unsuccessful, excluded. They are often forced to accept jobs where they are subjected to unfair prices for their work.

Unemployed adults, parents, women seeking help for their home, young people trying to be successful in life, however children are exploited in jobs, often slaves, having to cut cane, work in charcoal shops, hard work for the young age, all to kill hunger.

The excessive valuation of work has already been criticized, consumption, accumulation of capital, this in the 60’s. Giving value to enjoy life and have fun instead of just working and working. Leisure was a priority.

WORK is defined as an activity in which man exercises and with his intelligence transforms nature, at the same time looking for a way to support himself through paid activities.

Work is combined with an ideology, in which a world appears, with doctrines, norms, rules, and the worker, man is not free from ideology.

An example like Sparta, in the Greek civilization, that educated for the war, preoccupied with good soldiers, until the seven years the boys were in the power of the parents, from the seven to the fourteen followed a career of militarism controlled by the government, from the fourteen to the twenty they were squires , from twenty to thirty warriors, and finally to thirty were free to marry, that was nothing more than slavery, since they were obliged to serve.

In the 5th and 4th century AD, slave labor was considered natural and necessary, freeing citizens from menial tasks, in order to enjoy themselves and contemplations of the spirit. And they did not fight for freedom out of fear of death.

In the Republic of the philosopher Plato the division of labor was beneficial to society. For Aristotle, being a citizen required a lot of time.

However, there have been slow changes after this period, in which artisanal, artistic work is valued, and factories are set up in cities that are beginning to develop, this through free labor. Independent groups, with raw materials, tools, and sold what they produced through their work. In this way , CAPITALISM, focused on economic growth and wealth, facing profit as a positive principle, should not waste time, saving and maintaining itself. In this system 1st countries. reached development through profit with the accumulation of capital they had. Capitalism changed history in the sense of expanding trade, an industrial power.

Slavery under capitalism took place in industries, where children were forced to work in factories hourly, following unbearable norms for anyone. When capitalism was strengthened it needed a lot of labor, the solution to the problem was slavery, orders that made people work, and if they didn’t work they were arrested, and considered to be vague people.

In this system, the factory owners accumulated wealth, that was their ideology, coercing the workers so that by working they would be able to be rich.

Later on it was found that slave labor was no longer as efficient, and that free labor was better and profitable, and theories appear in capitalism in favor of free labor.

The Liberalism, merged through thinkers, giving more emphasis and force initialized ideology. Liberalism was opposed to the state in the economic sector, and accepted the rivalries of the market, and the valorization of workers’ rights, Harold J. Lask, believed that this economic idealization defended the interests of property rather than that of the worker. Adam Smith, declared that the workforce leads a country to be rich, gaining wealth is very important.

Karl Marx, criticized the degrading condition in which the workers were. He declared that wealth was generated only through work, and whoever produced it did not have the right to it. Therefore, slavery still existed, in newer lands, with the development of maritime expansion. As, for example, in the discovery of new countries, when settlers arrived in Brazil, instead of teaching the natives to work, they enslaved the natives, knowing how to coerce them, both in Brazil and in other new lands.

Thanks to the industrial revolution, the man was a little more free, because it provided faster rhythms for work, and the man connected to the machine. Occurring in the nineteenth century a pace that was no longer desired for production.

Techniques are applied so that workers seem to be happy within a company, using advertising and the act of offering gifts, and uniforms from firms, so that the worker lived only for the progress of the company. Automatically the human side of the worker loses priority, loses with time, which needs to be occupied with work, production.

The ideals, foundations were important works that thinkers associated with LABOR, valuing work.

Work serves human subsistence, since the past centuries, all wanting to earn a decent life for the family. For however, there was work, always the working class and the class that hires these workers, which will devise a way to never waste time and money. Often forgetting that valuing the worker is important, because when the worker is truly recognized, he will certainly commit himself with much more pleasure, and will make work not only a way of guaranteeing his life, but a way of feeling if not a happy slave, but a satisfied worker.