The German Ideology

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being a man of wealth and taste, did read Marx and Engels' The German Ideology (1846), or at least as much of it as is provided in C.J. Arthur's student edition of 1970. In it the authors present the view that the ideologies of an historical period are closely linked to its productive processes, though the relationship seems reciprocal to some degree. These ideologies do, however, become treated as though they are inevitable entities in their own right. Therefore men are alienated from the natural relationships between them, and from the true conditions of their labour. This seems obvious nowadays, but was clearly less so in the mid-nineteenth century. The prose is the usual mixture of the extraordinarily impenetrable peppered with brilliant aphorisms. I did not quite understand the emphasis given on "classes" in the creation of ideologies, except as a necessary precursor for Communism. Furthermore, it is not clear to me what the nature of man would be lacking these controlling ideologies, i.e. either before the division of labour, or after the establishment of Communism. Doubtless more could be written on these topics.... But this is a very interesting, though somewhat difficult,text.