For instance, Marxism is not a reality-based, practical plan for improving the conditions of the working class-Marx and Engels despised such efforts-it is an attempt to replace the real world, in which life is hard and people suffer for a myriad of reasons, with a fantasy world in which life is simple and endlessly joyous. To the ideologue, primary reality is in some sense a fake world, a shadow of the ideologue’s dream. The difference between this and an ideological “second reality” is that in the latter case what we have is not a practical plan for moving from the current, realistically appraised state of the world to a different state deemed more desirable but rather a denial of reality as it is, and the attempt to blot out that reality with the magical invocation of an alternate reality in which essential aspects of “first” reality are banished by incantation. But I can do so only by accepting the truth of reality as it is when I first imagine my dream: there is no bridge at that moment, to construct one is going to take a lot of resources and some great engineering, I must work to persuade many people it is feasible, and so on. If, in 1870, I “dream” of a bridge across the East River, I may be able to succeed in getting the Brooklyn Bridge constructed.
Of course, all practical action seeks to replace what is with what ought to be. It runs:Īn ideology is a collection of axioms and their supporting slogans used for constructing and keeping intact a second reality.īy a “second reality” is meant a fantasy, a dream world, a wish about how the world really ought to be, that is taken to be, in some sense, more real than the actual world the ideologue lives in.
I have even heard it used to describe things like a sports strategy: “The Chiefs’ passing ideology has worked well this season.” The definition I offer here is drawn primarily from the work of Eric Voegelin, although Michael Oakeshott and Aristotle have contributed to it as well. Like many words, ideology is overloaded with meanings. To subscribe to the print journal, click here.
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