Page 64 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

48 Ideologies

ideas concern fairness, equality, distributive justice, and a guarantee of
well - being for all. France, where socialist thinking is more pronounced and
more common, publicly discusses how to share the wealth all generate
between labor and owners. The presence of such ideas is associated with
strong labor unions and much greater economic equality. The presence or
absence of certain ideas in a culture seems linked to wealth distribution in
the economy. Other scholars look at history and note that those in favor
of economic inequality successfully marginalized and even suppressed the

kinds of egalitarian ideas one finds in France during the period after World
War II in the US. Those ideas were branded as being “ communist ” and
were successfully stigmatized. The inegalitarians were able then to mobilize
public perceptions in ways favorable to their position that economic
inequality is a good thing. No other ideas were in circulation in the media
to contradict that assumption and the perception it promoted. “ Freedom ”
prevailed, and that it was indistinguishable from increased levels of
inequality went unnoticed.
The ideology of freedom is in many respects a perfect example of how
ideas can make things happen in the world when they attach to a successful
use of rhetoric to convince people of the virtue of the ideas. In the 1960s
and 1970s, Americans were still comfortable with the idea that government
had a role to play in economic life, tempering the disparity in wealth
distribution by taxing the wealthy and assisting the poor. But a severe
economic downturn in the 1970s made it possible for conservatives –
who dislike government taxation and regulation of economic activity
because it interferes with an over - accumulation of social resources that
some wealthy conservatives feel is mandatory for their well - being – to
foster discontent with this approach. Other, more poor conservatives
see the fruits of their hard work taken from them in taxes that seem
unfairly to go to others. Why should their survival be threatened to
assure the survival of others who do not seem to work as hard? In situations
of economic distress of the sort that emerged in the 1970s, such feelings
are perfectly understandable. But the solution is to change the situation
that generates distress, not to allow primitive feelings to prevail. That
did not happen in the 1970s because conservatives were more successful
at mobilizing popular support through such cultural activities as political
advertising and movies than liberals. It was easier to promote a happy -
feeling word like freedom (which meant removing liberal restraints on
the over - accumulation of social resources by wealthy conservatives)
than a dismal - sounding idea like government regulation . When people