Aaron Tobin’s Reviews > To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse > Status Update

Only perhaps with the most radical queer theory—with the abolition of all categories—might such be achieved. But that scenario begs further questions: if all categories are abolished, is any kind of real society possible? Or, if all categories are destabilized, does power not remain in the hands of those who already possess it?

Yet a careful reading of Marx indicates that ideology is not simply an epiphenomenon that expresses underlying economic (and thus political) interests. Rather it is itself both a function and a component part of the economic system. In other words, ideology serves a purpose in shaping reality as people experience it and in providing them tools whereby they can engage it. Ideology actually serves to constitute reality