Ideology

Ideology - A system of beliefs that may include figures of speech, stereotypes, and social and cultural assumptions based upon the dominant culture's definitions of nature and social relationships. Ideology is often used by the ruling elite to justify acts that are criminal in content while couched in patriotic rhetoric.

Ideological categories arise and subside as hierarchical power relationships change. Industrialized and post-industrial nation-states make wide use of publicity owned media to sustain power relationships for social, political, and geographic purposes, as did their predecessors use central forms of communicating ideas. Propaganda becomes a category of the dominant ideology as needs arise.

The core of the dominant ideology remains intact until a paradigm shift over several hundred years obscures what was once the dominant ideology. Examples can be found in early Egyptian religions that justified their existence from Pharaoh's relationship to their deity. Papal justifications came to work in a similar fashion. Recall the flat earth and earth-centered solar system arguments based upon ideology and scholasticism. Sub-categories of the dominant ideology may change within years or even overnight (Nixon being the "only one who could go to China."). Hence, examples are commonly found in ideological shifts with US presidencies and text book editions.

Today, official pronouncements are often couched in ideological rhetoric to justify wars, shifting tax burdens to the poor, and attacks on the "New Deal."