Page 60 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

44 Ideologies

rural areas who migrate to cities for work in factories are encouraged to
think of themselves as dagonmei , dutiful and obedient daughters who sub-
stitute the factory boss for their older brothers and fathers. The rural
patriarchal tradition of obedience for young women is thus adapted to the
new industrial economic order in China.
The idea (and personal ideal) that dominates in America is freedom for
reasons that have to do with how particular social and economic groups
pressed their case and their self - interest most successfully throughout US
history; the ideal that dominates the lives of young women in newly indus-
trial China is “ obedience ” for reasons that have to do with the wishes of
the ruling political elite to foster greater economic productivity that will
raise China out of poverty and make it a modern industrial nation. If in

the US, the common good is sacrificed for self - interest, in China, self -
interest serves the common good. Different dominant ideas and ideals
mold identities differently in each place.
History also provides examples of the way ideologies change over time.
Prior to the invention of liberalism, the body of ideas associated with politi-
cal democracy and the idea of personal or individual freedom, most
European societies were characterized by ideas that sustained an authori-
tarian social model founded on hierarchy and obedience. Under feudalism,
the dominant ideas were not freedom or democracy but duty and loyalty.
And people thought of themselves differently as a result. Peasants did not
think they were free to choose amongst a variety of possible life paths. Their
place in life was established for them by their society, and their culture,
largely religious, convinced them that their duty was to stay in their place
and to perform their assigned tasks. The dominant cultural idea had it that
society was a corporate, organic whole in which each part performed its
role. The age of liberalism or of personal freedom founded on the idea of
the individual operates according to a different picture of the world.
Individuals move about freely if they can in the economic network. But
some would argue such free movement and action only reinforces rigid
social structures by making them appear more flexible than they actually

are. Even as one moves up the class ladder, it remains a class ladder, and
one ’ s efforts only make it all the more rational, normal, and acceptable
as a way of arranging our world. By freely choosing which consumer
goods to buy, we merely tie more tightly the chains that prevent genuine
freedom from coming into being by fostering an economic system organ-
ized around enforced labor for the majority so that a minority can enjoy
excess wealth.