Ideology

Ideology

In this session we have discussed a really interesting topic - Ideology.

The presentation started off with a very clever quote:
"You're not the boss of me. I'm the boss of me. I act on my opinions. My opinions are natural. Aren't they?"...

And this is where ideologies start having an impact on everyone, on the way we behave, on the way we think and act, and even, and probably, most importantly, the way we REACT! And I'm saying this, because I believe, that the way a person reacts, as an action he or she takes, in response to something,  has a very short thinking time applied to it in most cases, which means that the decision of how to react, is based most likely, on one's ideology. I am basing this statement on the definition of ideology given by the Oxford Dictionary as " the set of beliefs characteristic of a social group or individuals".
            http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ideology?q=ideology

From this, we can draw a pretty simple conclusion in relation to ideologies, and we can easily say that they embody the way we have been brought up, they are a set of moral values influenced by the environment.

However, as much as ideologies can be inherited involuntarily, through simple unquestioned upbringing, (nd by this I am referring simply to the fact that most people do not question their family ideologies, but accept them as being the right and only way to behave and think), some ideologies, can be implemented through various systems or methods for imposing a certain way of being/thinking.

My statement might seem a little twisted and difficult to understand, but basically, I believe, that while we are brought up with certain beliefs, we can pretty easily convert to different ones, by simply changing the environment, or changing the rules we have to follow.

The best example for this, is Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.

The Panopticon is the model of a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham during the late eighteenth century. The word "Panopticon" comes from "Pan", which means all, and the Greek "Opticon", which means view.

Oxford dictionary defines the Panopticon as "a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed."

The panoptic prison is basically designed with an opaque central tower in its center, around which, are aligned transparent cells. The central tower can see into each individual cell, but nobody can know if there is actually anybody inside the opaque watchtower, therefore the mode of observation is permanent.

The french philosopher Michel Foucault suggested in his book, Discipline and Punish (1995), that the inmates end up to self regulate in the Panopticon.

Panopticon - elevation and section drawn by  Willey Reveley - 1791

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/06/20/surveillance-from-the-clouds-to-the-fog/

This way, a forced development of the superego is applied, in the sense that, a part of the brain is being kept in check at all times and will develop, for the fear of being seen. So, the prisoners will develop a new sense of morality, a new ideology and a new way of thinking. After a while, the fake "good behavior" becomes normal, and the old ideology is completely forgotten. Human nature is fantastic from this point of view, because people, as thinking mechanisms, are extremely adaptable and in a constant search for acceptance. So, if by changing ideology and ultimately, behavior, they are praised, accepted and included in certain groups (societies), they will continue believing and acting on those ideologies, therefore, becoming their second nature. It is commonly known that behaviour and actions repeated, become habit.

People in general, do tend to behave differently when they are being observed, as conscientiousness is not a human being's forte. So, based on this idea, I guess, the United Kingdom have installed 20% of the the world CCTV cameras, even though the country's population only adds up to 1% of the world population... And the number of CCTV cameras is expected to double by 2018...
But, on the plus side,  "Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than many other countries in Western Europe", according to the BBC News bulletin from the 24th of April 2013 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280), so it might all be for the best.

Leaving behind the imposed ideologies discussed in the previous paragraph, we can say that an ideology is a set of social values, beliefs, feelings, representations and institutions by which people, collectively, make sense of the world they live in.
However, all these, are influenced heavily by a few factors, and one of the most important ones, these days, is the media, which plays a vital role in communicating and reinforcing DOMINANT ideologies.
As I have mentioned before, ideologies are often not consciously thought out, they are invisibly imposed to reinforce power relations and social structures.

And all this, is because of the importance of ideologies in anyone's life.
Their role is to:

• give meaning to life
• provide adherents with criteria or standards for evaluating right-wrong and/or good-bad
• provide an identity and orient people with a social and cultural compass
• provide with a program of action ("what is to be done?")

The German philosopher, Karl Marx, suggested in his 1848 work called The Communist Manifesto, that, ideologies arise in class divided societies, for the express purpose of political domination.

He said: "the class that has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently controls the means of the mental production. and this control that he is talking about, can and in most cases will, slowly lead to hegemony, which is "leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others" (Oxford Dictionary). But this is an entirely different subject, and I will probably approach this in a different post.

I will end this post with the famous quote from the human rights activist, Malcolm X. He once said: "Knowledge is power". And this is a very strong statement. Who has the knowledge, will be able to cease power and control in a good or bad way the masses. This is, in my opinion, what ideologies are based on: one person/group convincing and converting others to a certain way of thinking, believing and behaving, by providing them with real (or not) arguments. I had to say "or not" as well, because some ideologies are based on pure invented facts, meant to respond to some peoples utopian dreams.