Marx v Toole or Breaking Bad (Ideology)

I wanted to continue the conversation Zach and I had about Marx, Ideology, and Consciousness in tutorial, and how it connects to Toole's work. 

When your entire existence is shaped by ideology, of course, you view the world through its lens. Not just on the level of discrimination, but the level of the words we use to describe something and the frameworks that we use to analyze something. These ways of thinking have been ingrained in us, largely thanks to the ruling class. If ideology structures how we perceive reality, how does anyone ever break free from it in the first place? For Marx, it’s not about someone just waking up one day and deciding to resist ideology—it’s about contradictions in material life creating the conditions for awareness, which prompt revolution. People experience horrible things that don’t align with the ideology being enforced by the ruling class. Yet, many can rationalize complete absurdity, potentially showing that awareness requires the extremes of inequality and capitalism. 

Toole writes that “prior to consciousness-raising, the whole of the phenomenal framework in and through which the individual receives, classifies, channels, and responds to her experiences will be shaped by the operative ideological framework” (422). She adds, “consciousness-raising refers to the practice of coming together in groups, identifying commonalities in experience, and developing a critical perspective on those commonalities” (417). But this leads to an important question: how do we find a critical perspective that’s independent of ideology? Is it simply the person who proclaims to be most aware of their oppression who is capable of identifying the truth? Toole's call for consciousness-raising seems to hinge on the idea that individuals, when brought together in groups, can collectively develop a more critical perspective/vantage on their society. But does the nature of conformity not pressure groups to act in order of societal norms, which are further directly driven by ideology?

Furthermore, what happens when all of those who are oppressed internalize their oppression, believing they deserve it? How does consciousness-raising work when those who are affected by ideology are too deep in it to even see the need for change? If everyone is stuck in the same ideological framework, how can we trust that any one group’s perspective is truly “free” from ideology? 

How can we make sure that the person who does break free is educating others, and simply not creating a new ideology? It seems quite difficult to separate consciousness from ideology, and even more so to move from ideological thinking to free critical thought.