Publication Date

2022

Document Type

Book

Description

The focus of this research is to define the term “American Ideology” as Americanism and outline its relationship to the economic system of capitalism. The main objective of this is to further support the thesis that American ideology protects capitalism’s control and domination within American political and social culture. The issue at hand is to detail why it is difficult for those who criticize and propose ideas that are not rooted in capitalism from speaking in the political and economic mainstream. Essentially why is it that these individuals are considered irrelevant or sometimes even “fringe”? To answer this question, I engage directly with the discourse of renowned critics of ideology and capitalism, for instance, those of Herbert Marcuse and Slavoj Žižek. My primary theses show that there is a specific relationship between ideology and a given system that explains why it is so difficult for those who populate the social world to criticize the said system. Additionally, I further develop in this research the concept that ideology acts as a sort of protection for the system to which it is attached: this phenomenon shielding capitalism should be identified as Americanism. Capitalism and Americanism have a distinct relationship such that the general public cannot differentiate between reality and ideological fantasy, thus allowing for the control of capitalism to continue without any seemingly relevant threat.

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Concealing Power and Domination Through American Ideology

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