es the division of labor as something "forced" upon human beings which consequently creates a social reality that is divisive rather than communal (Tucker 160). The division of labor which channels what human beings produce "into an objective power above us" (see Weber) is "one of the chief factors in historical development until now" (Tucker 160).
This "objective power," Marx claims, has mutated from "spirit" (or God) to an out-of-control beast known as the "market." Once human beings worshipped at the alter of God, believing that a force of benevolence determined their fate; now human beings unconsciously worship the new (or true) force of history: the market. It this shift that Marx wants people to become conscious of. Consciousness depends on our knowing the "real process of production," particularly since every social and cultural manifestation of human civilization--the State, religion, philosophy and ethics--emerge from the creation of material wealth (Tucker 164). Marx contends that it is material relations that determine both the movement of history, and the thought processes of humankind.
To be aware of the material relations that produce consciousness is to begin to conceptualize freedom. Marx writes: "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas" (Tucker 172); this insists on a causal relationship between ideology and power. Marx argues further that the class that owns the means of material production (food, clothing, shelter) owns the means of intellectual (consciousness) production as well (Tucker 172). The relationship between the owning class and the working class is one of exploitation. Exploitation and ruling class interest are masked cleverly because the ruling class is able to distort "reality" through "revolutionizing the instruments of production," which in turn regulate consciousness--for example, the media engenders and manipulates cultural values which cement the role of the wo...