Ideology
In sociology and politics, an ideology is a blueprint for the construction of a political and social order. Ideologies share not only ideas, but also myths, symbols, and dogmas. Successful ideologies often become associated with mass movements. They frequently come laced with some sort of utopianism as well: correct adherence to the plan will create an ideally just, harmonious, and efficient society as the ideologues conceive of it.
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“”I already am eating from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I am effectively eating. |
—Slavoj Žižek on ideology.[1] |
Ideologies contain:
- Goals: an idea about how society should work. Typical ideological goals seek to maximize some aspect of a society held to be of paramount importance, such as equality, freedom, economic gains, or religious faith.
- Methods: the most appropriate means and institutions to achieve the goals. Ideologies may call for a proletarian dictatorship, a democracy, a caliphate, or a global free market, or some other institution, based again on the chosen goals.
Ideologies are typically classified as either 'right' or 'left' on the political spectrum. They invest politics with meaning that transcends the details of current issues or conflicts. They are often geared towards the interests of a particular social class or constituency and seek to advance their agendas at the expense of their neighbors. They are more coherent than general political strategies such as populism, which can be pressed into the service of a variety of beliefs.[2]
History
To Karl Marx, ideology described the dominant religious, legal, and social systems (the "superstructure") that flowed from social status and control of the means of production (the "base").[3] Later political thinkers influenced by Marx, such as Antonio Gramsci, developed ideas of "cultural hegemony" and "false consciousness" to describe a belief that the oppressed were being systematically deceived by ideologies controlled by the powerful. In order to combat this ideology, a revolutionary vanguard needed to emerge and cultivate the ideological counternarrative of revolutionary thinking.
This line of Marxist argument suggests that a truly successful ideology will not even be noticed in its operation. In 1960, Daniel Bell
Silvio Vietta
Paleoconservatives of the Russell Kirk
See also
External links
- Josef Brody, How Ideology Seduces Us - and How We Can (Try to) Escape It, Truthout, Nov. 28, 2012. Review of the film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, a film by Sophie Fiennes featuring Slavoj Žižek
Notes
- History actually ended when the necktie became ubiquitous in men's fashions. No history worth reading was ever made by men in neckties.
References
- The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012), via Wikiquote
- "Ideology", in Bryan S. Turner (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology (Cambridge, 2006; ISBN 0-511-37145-4)
- See the Wikipedia article on Base and superstructure (Marxism).
- Silvio Vietta (2013). A Theory of Global Civilization: Rationality and the Irrational as the Driving Forces of History.