virtualization of design and production a thesis - Bilkent University

other words there are only needs because the system needs them” (Baudrillard
82). Further;
2.4. Ideology
“All the needs invested by the individual consumer today are
just essential to the order of production as the capital invested
by the capitalist entrepreneur and the labor power invested by
the wage laborer. It is all capital. Hence there is a compulsion
to need and a compulsion to consume. One can imagine laws
sanctioning such constraint one day (an obligation to change
cars every two years). (Baudrillard 82)
The logic of consumption is an ideology in Althusser’s sense. For him ideology
is representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their conditions
of existence (Althusser 153). Likewise, Baudrillard’s debate on the generation of
sign-values and needs internally relates to a certain logic of ideology commenced
by the capitalist ideal. The ideology which is at work within the current system
would inevitably create an atmosphere of endless needs to consume and it would
demand compulsory consumption since it is the sole rationale for its persistence.
Discussing Louis Althusser’s concept of ideology, Mary Klages states:
“Ideology is a structure, its contents will vary, you can fill it up
with anything, but its form, like the structure of the
unconscious, is always the same. And ideology works
"unconsciously." Like language, ideology is a structure/system
which we inhabit, which speaks us, but which gives us the
illusion that we're in charge, that we freely chose to believe the
things we believe, and that we can find lots of reasons why we
believe those things.” (Klages 1)
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