Althusser

Louis Althusser says, “Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence” (44). Ideology is the framework from which we live our lives even though it does not directly relate to reality. It is impossible to step outside of it. The way that we all operate within ideologies is because we do not recognize the ideologies on a conscious level. The only way to challenge ideologies is to recognize how it plays out. An example of this is how the upper levels of our society maintain power and status quo through myth of the American dream. The American dream tells us that any individual is able to succeed if he works hard enough and is motivated to achieve a better future, however this is not true due to many systematic forces that exist. It is an ideology that presents a way of life for a majority of the American people but in reality it is only truly available to those who are privileged. On the rare occasion people who are in the lower social strata are able to move up to a higher social strata. This places people in a mode of constantly struggling for success that is unattainable. This allows those in the upper class to maintain their privileged position. The failure of those who do not achieve the American dream are then led to believe that it is because of an individual failure rather than an oppressive systematic force such as race and class boundaries.