To study a domain of knowledge one can take several ‘points of view’. One can concentrate on the narrow perspectives or one can take on the ‘standpoint of the whole’. Every citizen of every society has a point of view about almost everything. Opinions are quickly stated on most anything that is within the domain of discussion of a society at a specific time.
Society is less a collection of individuals and more a system of points of view. A society is a matrix of positions. To be a member of society is to be part of a prestructured social space. An individual has multiple roles; within each role is an established point of view. On occasion this is a considered point of view; more often than not it is an unconscious legacy of past experience.
Each of us harbors a hierarchy of views and I think that in every society there is a dominant position or point of view or ideology. The American dominant ideology is structured about the dominant value system, which is to maximize production and consumption.
The dominant ideology, like all ideologies or points of view, is narrow and dominated by the self interest of the commanding group who establish the view and maintain its superior position within the society. Being a partial point of view the dominant ideology is biased, distorted and unaware of its own assumptions. The partial point of view often claims universality and absolute validity. In some cases the claims are based on ignorance and in many cases it is based on self-interest.
Who controls the dominant ideology in your nation? I am convinced that in the USA the corporate and institutional elite control the dominant ideology.
The obvious question is: how does the dominant ideology change? Is it a natural chaotic process that humans can only watch helplessly, or can groups of people “get involved” and drag it towards their position? I suspect that the former is the case, and that people who think they can “change the world” are naïve.
In this country it’s a combination of the Old Boys Network, the British Civil Service, the heads of major banks and corporations, a small minority of the government’s many people and the editors and publicists that keep the whole merrygoround spinning…
“The obvious question is: how does the dominant ideology change?â€
The dominant ideology changes as the self interest of the oligarchy dictates. If the people do not understand who the Matador is they will continue to hook at what ever movement the Matador makes with the cape.
If the people should ever see the Matador instead of the cape then they, the people, could change things. But as long as the people have their heads elsewhere no such change can take place.
Surely there’s also the possibility of a coup, a shifting of the dominant class and consequently the dominant ideology? I’m thinking of the French Revolutions, which weren’t so much about people realising anything that they didn’t know before so much as actually getting round to doing something about it. In the case of the July Revolution (the second one) it was a ‘bourgeois’ revolution, something that your loosely Hegelian explanation wouldn’t appear to account for.
ChimneySweep: The obvious question is: how does the dominant ideology change? Is it a natural chaotic process that humans can only watch helplessly, or can groups of people “get involved” and drag it towards their position? I suspect that the former is the case, and that people who think they can “change the world” are naïve."
K:An ideology is a paradigm of peoples thoughts about themselves and
their world. An ideology changes when the ideology and reality
no longer matches. A good example would be if IMP one day
understood, actually understood that his understanding of the
word, his ideology, was wrong because it no longer accurately
represented his world. It is not a kill or be killed world, but a
more kinder, gentler world. A world where people do nice thing
without reward or gain, just to do a nice thing. A world where
kindness is the rule rather then the exception. IMP seeing this for the
first time changes his ideology, he has a paradigm shift.
Changing the world is just about changing one mind at a time.
The ideology shift changes because enough people see that
their ideology no longer matches the reality of their world.
If you can’t change your ideology to match the world, then you
are unable to adapt. Darwin tell us of species that can’t adapt
die out. In the 6th century Rome, Pagans no longer existed,
they died out because the world’s ideology changed and
they were unable to change with it. They couldn’t evolve.
There were dinosaurs. And we all know what happened to
dinosaurs. Those who can’t change/evolve their ideology
to adapt to a new world are dinosaurs. The winds of change are
coming. Nietzsche saw that over 100 years ago. The death
of god is the death of an ideology, christianity. We have killed
him, or properly said, we killed his ideology because it no longer
fit the environment we live in. We are living in a new age and
a new age needs a new ideology, a new paradigm.
We must shift our views, find the new ideology. Or we
become dinosaurs. The wind from the west is growing stronger,
louder, harder to ignore. the winds of change are coming,
whether you hear it or not, whether you know it or not, whither
you acknowledge it or not. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
It is the road to being a dinosaur.
