LibriumArcana.Games

In a forum where current events and politics is the main subject, ideology is not only bound to come up but is central to almost every discussion. But what is ideology, how do you define it and seperate it from other factors inherent in events? I will quickly attempt to answer these questions.

Ideology serves a fuction for those who subscirbe to it. Be that person a Liberal a Conservative, a Green, or even a Communist, the different ideologies still serve the same functions and purposes for those people. What are those functions?

Explanation: An Ideology explains the world around the person. It constructs a set of reasons for the state of world providing the why and how we got to the state we are in. It also provides explanations for new events allowing the viewer to place it in a internally consistant framework. This does not mean that an ideology is always correct or even correct most of the time, it is possible for an ideology to present a view of the world that has nothing to do with reality. However, as long as the explations are internally consistant it will work as a frame of reference for the person.

Evaluation: An Ideology will also help the person determine if the state of the world and the events in it are good or bad. An ideology provides a morality on which to judge things, weighing each event and action in the context of the ideals of the ideology. This also provides a set of goals for the person as people almost always struggle for what they believe to be good and desirable. For example a communist, a socialist and a liberal will see the same event and provide different moral judgements upon it. The violent overthrow of a government by marxist forces for example would be viewed differently by all three.

Oritentation: An ideology provides an identity for person. By giving the person a sense of who he is and what he believes in, the ideology provides a concenrate group or personal idenitity for the person. People will define themselves based upon this belief. Example: I am a Liberal Christian, or I am a Socialist Democrat.

Political Plan of Action: Having provided an explanation of world, a judgement of the state of it and an identity of the person and the group she belongs to, an Ideology provides must provide one more thing in order to be counted as such. It must provide a plan of action in order to get from A to B. This can be astonishing vague i.e. Empower the working class against the capitialist, or very detailed i.e. Estblish laws through elected officals, via fair and free elections, to safeguard the rights of citizens to privatcy, free speech and freedom of religion thus ensuring that government does not become an instrument of tryanny upon the people.

Some things come close to being an Ideology (i.e Nationalism, Internationalism, various religions) but fail due to not providing one of the four above. For example Shintoism, the traditional religion of Japan does not include either a political program or evualution, being esstentially a series of rituals and beliefs in ancestor and nature spirits. It does however provide a powerful sense of identity and a consistant explation of the world and it's state. While Buddhism like many relgions provides the first 3, it does not provide a political plan of action and therefore fails to be an ideology. It is possible for ideologies to be formed out of religions or lack thereof however as Hindu Nationalist of India, Religious Right of the United States, Radical Islam of Wabhism, Extremist Athiestism/Secularization of Soviet Communism prove.

More forthcoming soon.

*Note, while I invite everyone to comment, I must demand that this thread be kept nuetral of political/religious disputes. Those who fail in this regard will have their post moved to and flamed. Thank you.

Ideology is a sticky wicket, among other things. For example some would call monarchism an ideology of its own, but others would point out that one of the purposes of the Monarch is to be a non-ideologically influenced leader, representing the whole state no matter the politics of whomever happens to control the legislature in that period of time, and even when the Monarch wields considerable power the purpose is for the serving of all the individuals in the state, rather than the advancing of the goals of a particular political clique. Whether or not such claims can be justified, however, or whether or not they even need to be justified, is certain.

Which brings us the question: Is ideology utterly necessary as a part of politics? Is it impossible to dispense with..?

Is ideology utterly necessary as a part of politics?

I would look farther afield. In fact I would argue that ideology is utterly a part of being human. It is in the nature of humans to seek explanation, evaulation and orientation as ways of explaining the world and their place within it. Political Plans of Actions are a result of enough humans holding the same of the above three and by their very nature translating it into a thought out plan of what they should do to improve the world.

Communist believe in organizing the working class against the over classes to end capitialism (yeah... that worked well. Not.)

Liberals worked to remove government out of the private sphere to allow freedom to individuls (this is back in the day folks don't confuse it with modern names, modern liberals tend to ID more closely with Socialism and such).

Is it impossible to dispense with..?

As long as it is imppossible to dispense with humans in the political process... Yes. Even if you start without ideology, you will eventually end up with groups who have developed them as a means of interacting and understanding the world around them.