The discussion of religious alienation in the previous chapter clearly illustrates the main characteristic Marx finds in ideology, and particularly in bourgeois ideology, which is its back to front picture of how things actually happen. In religion, this is seen in the belief that god creates man rather than the reverse. In ethics, people are said to derive judgements from an absolute moral principle of some sort, whereas it is their judgements, reflecting their class conditions and interests, that have constructed over time (and through generations) this principle. In politics, we found the belief that the state grants its citizens certain rights, whereas it is really the people who have abnegated their social power to the state. Also in this sphere, there is the apparently contradictory but really complementary view that the government is elected by the people, whereas people are manipulated in their electoral choices by their rulers.

In history, there is the belief that ‘great men’ and ideas decide the course of events, whereas events, together with their underlying conditions, establish the limitations and opportunities which determine in broad outline who shall be ‘great men’ and which ideas will triumph. In economics, people think they decide where they work and what they buy, but in actuality the jobs and commodities available determine both.