Ideology it literally means the study of ideas.
It was the French philosophers Antoine Destutt de Tracy, author of the treatise The elements of I'ideologie (1801) and Joseph-Marie de Gérando, who proposed the creation of a science that would study the formation of ideas.
They intended to form a method capable of examining the origin, process and elaboration of ideas in history.
Definition of Ideology
Currently, we use the word "ideology" as the set of principles followed by a political party, institutions and people. However, the meaning has changed throughout history.
For Antoine Destutt de Tracy, ideas were the result of the relationship between thinking beings and the environment and researching this coexistence would be the objective of "ideology".
However, in 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte appropriates this concept and uses it to insult his opponents. He called them ideologues, that is, people who would have unrealistic ideas.
It is in this sense, ideology as a false or fanciful idea, that Marx will use it.
Concept of Ideology in Marx
The main current critical of ideology is formulated by the German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883) to explain the cause of economic alienation.
Marx observed that wage earners did not perceive themselves as a social class and individuals in society believed that the social division of labor was natural, as well as the phenomenon of rain, for example.
However, according to Marx, ideology is a historical and social phenomenon that results from the economic mode of production. After all, social relations are the historical product of human action, they are not natural.
For Marx, there is a division of intellectual labor and manual labor. The former would be more valued and those would end up belonging to the elite. Therefore, this class produces ideologies so that the working class does not question its condition and thus continue to be exploited.
In this way, ideology prevents society from perceiving the internal link between economic power and political power.
It will be the elite that will give an ideology to the working class so that it believes in the unification of society. This can happen in the language, in religion, in the way of narrating the story, and more modernly, in sports.
Culture and Ideology
Cultural products can be used as instruments to propagate ideologies. For Marx, there is no human manifestation that is innocent or pure.
Theater, painting, music, all of them would be a reflection of the society in which they are inserted and, therefore, of their ideology.
There are artistic movements that are openly political such as socialist realism that sought to spread socialist ideas through certain rules to produce art and architecture.
On the other hand, other artistic movements would not be imposed from the State, but the State would end up using them to better capture people's support for its cause.
An example of this would be the French baroque that was used by King Louis XIV to assert his power against the French aristocracy.
Political Views
Throughout the 20th century, the word “ideology” was used to designate sets of ideas and beliefs that guided society.
With the end of the power of religion in society, it was necessary to employ another device that would give cohesion and meaning to human existence.
Therefore, several political ideas gained strength and became institutionalized as the fascism and communism, using the same methods of religions as leader worship.
In this way, political ideology is the set of ideas that guide the individual's thinking and attitudes towards society.
End of Ideologies?
On the other hand, with the economic crisis of the 1980s and the disintegration of the communist world, ideologies would have lost their value. No political idea would satisfy humanity, as they all have their flaws and end up disappointing the citizen sooner or later.
This perception would be clearer after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, when liberalism prevailed over the communist system.
Likewise, the philosopher Zygmunt Bauman expressed this lack of ideology through the concept of Liquid Modernity.
Ideology, by Cazuza
Composer and singer Cazuza, on the other hand, summed up his dismay in the face of a world without causes to fight with the song “Ideologia”, from 1988.
