Ideology

Ideology is a system of beliefs that is treated as natural, inevitable or obvious despite being a result of the intentional actions of the power system that administers it.

In most common usage, "ideology" is seen as simply a deeply-held conviction, which here is called an ideal, or any system of political beliefs, such as "communism" or "nationalism", which in this work is called a paradigm. Ideals and paradigms are not untainted by ideology and may even favor it or act as a proxy for it.

The distinction between ideology, paradigm and ideal is important because, to consider such named systems of beliefs as ideologies but leave their absence unnamed as a default position shadows the existence of an underlying system of beliefs that is not acknowledged but nonetheless subscribed to by those who claim not to have an ideology, to be simply acting according to their own conscience as if they were free from any influence from their environment, or who claim that their views or the views they favor are "neutral", "technical", "independent", "apolitical", and so on.

Any incumbent political authority, and in particular those that hold the economic power to sustain it, has ample potential to shape what beliefs the general population has. Financial incentive, educational curriculum, public concessions, law, limitations around the existence and purpose of public associations, are a few of the several ways a State can influence what these beliefs are.

The concept discussed here is largely based on the marxist meaning of ideology, which originates in Karl Marx's 1845 work, The German Ideology.