Specification Questions §

(F) Day of the week: Tuesday Class: IS301 Created Time: March 16, 2021 1:05 AM Database: Class Notes Database Date: March 16, 2021 1:05 AM Days Till Date: Passed Last Edited Time: September 4, 2021 10:05 PM

The concept of ideology, even though was created long before him, started to gain it’s current meaning when Marx started to use the word. Marx’s view of ideology was considerably more complex than his traditional predecessor theorists.

Ideology itself represents

• the “production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness,”
• all that “men say, imagine, conceive,” and include such things as “politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc.”

Ideology functions as the superstructure of a civilization: the conventions and culture that make up the dominant ideas of a society.

What is Marxist’s concept of ideology? §

Marx’s view on Ideology

In The German Ideology by Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

1. Ideology is about delusion and mystification: it perpetrates a false or mistaken view of the world, what Engels later referred to as ‘false conciousness’
   • Ideology was only used as a façade to hide systematic problems and political wrongdoings towards their citizens
   • Marx sees his ideas as scientific because they were created to learn about the workings of history and society.
2. Ideology is linked to the class system. Distortion in ideology comes from society reflecting interests of ruling class
   • Ruling class unwilling to recognize their acts of oppression
   • The poor is unwilling to recognize the oppression they suffer
3. Ideology serves as a manifestation of power. Serves to hide the exploited from their exploitation. Upholding the unequal class power system.
4. Ideology is a temporary phenomenon
   • Ideology can only exist if the unequal class system exists
   • The formation of a socialistic state with collective wealth will solve inequality

Perspectives on ideology from political groups §

LIBERALS, particularly during the Cold War period, have viewed ideology as an officially sanctioned belief system that claims a monopoly of truth, often through a spurious claim to be scientific. Ideology is therefore inherently repressive, even totalitarian; its prime examples are communism and fascism.

CONSERVATIVES have traditionally regarded ideology as a manifestation of the arrogance of rationalism. Ideologies are elaborate systems of thought that are dangerous or unreliable because, being abstracted from reality, they establish principles and goals that lead to repression, or are simply unachievable. In this light, socialism and liberalism are clearly ideological.

SOCIALISTS, following Marx, have seen ideology as a body of ideas that conceal the contradictions of class society, thereby promoting false consciousness and political passivity among subordinate classes. Liberalism is the classic ruling-class ideology. Later Marxists adopted a neutral concept of ideology, regarding it as the distinctive ideas of any social class, including the working class.

FASCISTS are often dismissive of ideology as an over-systematic, dry and intellectualized form of political understanding based on mere reason rather than passion and the will. The Nazis preferred to portray their own ideas as a Weltanschauung or ‘world-view’, and not as a systematic philosophy.

GREENS have tended to regard all conventional political doctrines as part of a super-ideology of industrialism. Ideology is thus tainted by its association with arrogant humanism and growth-orientated economics – liberalism and socialism being its most obvious examples.

ISLAMISTS have treated key religious texts as ideology, on the grounds that, by expressing the revealed word of God, they provide a programme for comprehensive social reconstruction. Secular ideologies, by contrast, are rejected because they are not founded on religious principles and so lack moral substance.

Are practical men the slaves of academic scribblers? §

He doesn’t say that practical men the slaves of academic scribblers.

the range of choices that we make — the areas in which we think we are exercising political and economic autonomy — are very often baked into people from their youthful exposure to earlier views on the topic. I think his point has to do with the reasons why established power structures find it difficult to accept new notions, and sounding a cautionary note about the necessity to be aware of the power of old ideas.

political thought and political practice are inseparably linked

• Its not a one way effect, but they reflect each other in changes

Core theme of all ideologies §

1. Liberalism: §

The core themes of liberalism is the primacy of the individual. Liberalism has 5 main values and beliefs, which are individualism, freedom, reason, justice and toleration.

• Individualism is the belief in the supreme importance of the individual over any social group or collective body. Individuals confronted by a broader range of choices and social possibilities. They were encouraging to think for themselves in personal terms. For example, a serf become a free man after the feudalism is breakdown and a serf will have ability to choose for whom to work or where to work.
• Freedom or liberty is the ability to think or act as one wishes, a capacity that can be associated with individual, a social group or a nation.
• Reasons: Liberals are generally optimistic about human nature, believe that human being are rational, reason-guided creatures, they are capable of defining and pursuing their own best interests. The belief in reason builds into liberalism a strong bias against paternalism.
• Justice: a moral standard of fairness and impartiality; social justice is the notion of a fair or justifiable distribution of wealth and rewards in society.
• Toleration: forbearance; a willingness to accept views or actions with which one is in disagreement. It establishes a set of rules about how human being should behave towards one other. The commitment to toleration, credited to the French writer Voltaire who expressed that “I detest what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it”. Toleration is primarily a guarantee to personal autonomy and condition for moral self-development because individuals accept another point of view or actions which lead to better understanding even though they still prevent their stance. Mill support that the state/ government should tolerate the opposite group. Although there are differences of interests among individuals and social groups, liberals believe that each group interest complement one another and the natural equilibrium will tend to assert itself.

2. Conservatism §

The core themes of conservatism is the desire to conserve. Its 4 central belief are: Tradition, human imperfect society, hierarchy and authority, and property

• Tradition: Conservative central believe of tradition first came from religion. The idea that everything was created by gods, the tradition, costume and the practice in society. Then to change it would mean to challenge god’s will, and that it would only worsen the life of human being.
• Human Imperfection: Conservatism unlike liberalism, believe that human being are psychologically limited creature. Human also fear of being alone and vulnerable, they are also drawn to a place of familiarity, a place in which people know their place. Conservative also believe that people committed crime and do the wrong thing not because of society cause them to do it, but because of the human individual. Conservative thought human as selfish, self-interest and power seeking.
• Organic Society: As conservative believe that human are depended creature who can’t be left alone, and thus they can’t exist or live outside of society. The individual is also part of other groups, like family, friends and other group, and these group provide the individual with security and meaning, and this is often call social conservatism. Conservative also believe that freedom is the willingness to accept social obligation, of an individual who recognized their value.
• Hierarchy and Authority: Like liberalism, conservatism believe that not all people are born equal, some people are born with wealth other aren’t, some are born with skill and talents while other have none of it. However conservative believe that inequality is just an unavoidable part of an organic society, and social hierarchy is inevitable. And people who have different position have different role to fill. Like the different organ in a human body, they all play a different parts to keep the body alive. The belief in hierarchy also play in the conservative belief of an authority. Conservative believe that authority is also natural as well, and it came from the need to make sure that children must be taken care of. And authority can’t be given from the below, it must be from those who are from the above. And authority is the figure that could help guide people and sure they know where they stand. And this led to conservative to place important on leadership and discipline. Leadership is consider to be very important in society as it provide with guidance and inspiration.
• Property: Property is an asset a possession of an individual, liberal believe that property is something that should be earn, as it reflect the person hard work and talents. Conservative also believe in the important of property as well, as property could give people the sense of security. Like a house to shelter the person from outside exposure, or a saving in the banks. Conservative also believe that property can also be the expression of a person individuality as well. A house is not just to keep a person warm, it also have the décor that fit to the person liking. And so a crime of robbery is not just stealing or damaging the property of a person, but also violate people personally as well. Conservative have argue that all rights, even property rights have a commitment to fill. Property is not merely just individual alone, some property such as that of lands, house and work of art has been pass down from generation to generation. All of those property that represent the wealth of the countries has to be preserve.

3. Socialism §

The core themes of socialism is No man is an island, which are characterized by 5 values

• Community: No man is an island entire of itself, this is the core believe of socialist that offer the idea that human can only be capable to overcome difficult circumstance, social and economic problem by unifying as a community and working collectively to pursue goal and oppose to the personal self-interest. As socialist express in their principle of fraternity, that they believe that there should be comradeship in the community, everyone must be bound to each other and be each other comrade, brother or sister. Socialist view human nature different from liberal or conservatism, rather than human nature is unchanging, socialist believe that human nature can be shape by the experiences and social life. Socialist view individual as inseparable from society, as all human skill are learnt from society therefore it is absurd to thing of them as an individual as they can only understand themselves through social group that they are in.
• Cooperation: Socialist view the idea of competition as an encouragement for human to deny there cooperative nature and adopt selfishness and aggression. While cooperation developed bond and sympathy, caring and affection which created moral and economic sense. As socialist believe that human can be motivated by moral incentive rather then material incentive. Human work hard out of their own morality, responsibility, and sympathy in a desire to contribute goods to the community and especially to people who are in need.
• Equality: Socialist believe that social equality will uphold justice or fairness. Rather than the belief of unequal endowment that each human face after birth, social believe that the inequality is resulted from the unequal social treatment. And justice is the demand that all people must be by society equally or at least more equal in term of material circumstances. Second social equality are related to community and cooperation. The outcome of the community’s cooperative work will be equal and strengthen solidarity. Third, social equality will guarantee the need satisfactions of individual. The basis need of human such as food, water and shelter are fundamental for human existence and satisfaction for their need is consider freedom.
• Class politics: Socialist class politics are express in two ways. First, socialist believed that social class is an analytical tool, mean that rather than individual actor, the principal actor in history is the social class, there for Marxist believe that history change is the product of social conflict. Second, Socialist class politics focus on working class. Socialist see the working class as a vehicle that they can use to achieve socialism ideology, so socialist are more focus on the interest of the working class. The idea of social class has seen to be either reduces or completely classless in socialist society. However, since the mid-twentieth century, socialist view on class politic has decline as the gap between each class are getting smaller, and the decline of the labor in the harsh condition industrial such as coal mine, steel mine, ship building and so on.
• Common ownership: Social is has always been focused on the equality of the wealth distribution, rather than Private ownership or personal belonging. This led them to criticize the idea of private ownership. As socialist view that there should be a collective effort of human labor un producing wealth, the idea of Property owner ship of unjust as property should be own by the community and not individual. Private property also encourages people to be greedy, materialistic, thus, there will be corruption.

4. Anarchism §

The core theme of Anarchism is Against Statist Politics, which include 5 ground principles

• Anti-statism: Anarchists see states as an unnecessary evil beings. The state’s sovereignty, compulsory and oppressive authority is seen as nothing less than legalized oppression in the interests of the wealthy, property, and privilege. As the state is fundamentally evil and oppressive, the basic character of all states is the same.
• Natural order: According to Hobbes and Locke, a stateless society that strives on natural order is likely to face chaos and civil war due to their nature of being greedy and potentially aggressive. Only a sovereignty state can ensure stability and social order by imposing law. Godwin, on the other hand, stated that humans are rational creature and capable of organizing their own lives in peaceful ways accordance with truth and universal moral laws. In addition, government is the cause of social disorder by corrupting the people that live under its influence of unnatural law.
• Anti-clearicalism: Beside from state, anarchism also criticized church or more broadly religious traditions that relate to Christianity. This religion has been seen as the source of authority that based on God, a supreme being that wields authority. Anarchists also believe that religion is one of the pillars of the state as it exercises an ideology of obedience and submission to both spiritual leaders and earthly rulers. Moreover, religious authorities such as priests impose moral principles and put the standard on what is considered evil or good, therefore it limits the human capacity and stripped away their moral autonomy. However, modern anarchists tend to favor Daoism and Zen Buddhism due to its nature of offering the prospect of personal insight and preaching the values of toleration, respect and natural harmony.
• Economic freedom: Social structures can influence economic life. According to anarchism, there are three social groups, majority of whom are exploited, minority of whom are both exploited and exploit other and minority of whom are exploiters and oppressors. Anarchists consider themselves the same as the poor and oppressed people in order to fight back the oppression through social revolution in the name of’ ‘exploited mass’. However, there are tensions within anarchism. Although both collectivist and individualist anarchists have the same hatred towards the exploitation of the state, collectivist anarchists advocate an economy based on cooperation and collective ownership and individual anarchists favor the market and private property

5. Nationalism §

The core themes of nationalism is for the love of country. There are 4 most important nationalist ideas and theories: the nation, organic community, self-determination and culturalism.

• The nation: The basic belief of nationalism is that the nation is, or should be the central principle of political organization. However, there is a confusion in defining the word “nation”. There are several major components of nationhood, which are language, religion, ethnicity, history and tradition but there are no objective criteria that can establish where and when a nation exist.
• Organic community: Even there were disagreement in the definition of nation, nationalists are unified by their belief that nations are organic communities, and this can be explained based on the ideas of primordialism, modernism and constructivism. Primordialist approaches to nationalism portray national identity as historically embedded: nations are rooted in a common cultural heritage and language that may long pre-date statehood or the quest for independence, and are characterized by deep emotional attachments that resemble kinship ties. On the other hand, modernist approaches to nationalism suggests that nation identity is forged in response to changing situations and historical challenges. Constructivist approach to nationalism regard national identity as very largely an ideological construct, usually serving the interests of powerful groups.
• Self-determination: Nationalism as a political ideology only emerged when the idea of national community encountered the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The nation is a natural political community. In this tradition of nationalism, nationhood and statehood are intrinsically linked. The goal of nationalism is the founding of a nation state, and this has been achieved in one of two ways. Firstly, it may involve a process of unification and secondly, nation-states can be created through the achievement of independence.
• Culturalism: Other forms of nationalism are related more closely to ethno cultural aspirations and demand. Even nationalism usually has an anti-modern character; cultural nationalism serves as agent of modernization that provide a people with a means of recreating itself. The role of nationalism in the form of culturalism is to develop an awareness and appreciation of nation tradition and collective memories rather than to provide the basic for an overtly political quest for statehood.

6. Fascism §

Strength through Unity

Anti-rationalism §

Anti-rationalism proposed that, human being are motivated by emotions, expression and willingness rather than their rational mind, reason and calculation. The leader interested in this idea because Anti-rationalism

• Addressed the soul, the emotions, the instincts. Therefore, elicit would influences the mass to follow and doing what they want.
• Rejected the idea of Enlightenment gave them created the destructive character. So they could enduring the previous values such as freedom came to unquestioning submission, democracy equated to absolutely dictatorship and so on.
• Abandoning the universal reason and replaced by faith which the individual must have innate loyalties and emotional bonds.

Struggle §

Fascism think human existence with Only competition and conflict guarantee the progress and ensure the strongest will proper. Only the winner will survive.

Leadership and elitism §

Its ideas where founded on the belief that absolute leadership and elitism are natural and desirable. Only those who are having capability and the real quality of leadership would be able leading their nation through struggle.

Fascist believes that society have 3 types of people:

• the most supreme leader who possesses monopoly of ideological wisdom
• a warrior elite which enable distinguished
• the masses who are weak, inert and ignorant.

Socialism §

The leader would emerged both socialism and fascism to influential the masses. Firstly, lower-middle class fascist activists formed a revolution against the large-scale capitalism, big business, and financial institution. Secondly, fascism likes socialism focusing on collectivism which places the community above individual and prohibit the action of self-interest and wealth and profit that runs to individual. Thirdly, Fascists adopted the socialist-style economic policies to regulate capitalism.

Ultranationalism §

Unlike nationalism that respect the ideas of distinctive cultures or national traditional but fascism asserted the ideas superiority of one nation over others. Fascism wishes to establish an intense and militant sense of national identity. The expansion of their nation through war and conquest. In the fascist view, economic strength through capacity solely resources and energies. Therefore, in order to ensure the economic security need to bind up with military power.

8. Feminism §

Redefining ‘the political’ §

In modern feminism, Politics is an activity that takes place within all social groups and is not merely confined to the affairs of government or other public bodies. Thus, the relationship between the government and citizens is clearly political, it means the relationship between employers and workers, the relationships in the family, between husband and wives and between parents and children are considered as politics. The challenge is the division between public and private sphere. For example, Public man and Private woman. The private women are restricted to the private role of housewife and mother excluding from politics.

Patriarchy §

Feminists have advanced a theory of ‘sexual politics’ as the way Socialists have preached the idea of ‘class politics’. Feminists use the concept of Patriarchy which refers to the rule by father; generally, to describe the dominance of men and subordination of women in society at large. By using this concept, Feminists view that the dominance of father within the family symbolized the dominance in all institutions. However, feminists argued that men have dominated women in all societies, but accept that the forms and degree of oppression have varied considerably in different cultures and at different times. For instance, western countries and in some parts of developing world.

Sex and gender §

The association with conservative to the anti-feminist argued that the gender divisions in society are natural: women and men merely fulfil the social roles for which nature designed them., in short biology is destiny. Women are bore to bear and to rear children. However, feminists insist that women may be mother, but they need not accept the responsibilities of motherhood; nurturing, educating and raising children by devoting themselves to home and family.

Equality and difference §

Although the goal of feminism is the overthrown of patriarchy and the ending of sexist oppression, feminists sometimes is uncertain about what this means in practice and how it can be brought about. However, the issue of equality has exposed major faultiness within feminism; feminists have embraced contrasting notions of equality and some have some entirely rejected equality in favour of the idea of difference.

9. Green Ideology §

Ecology §

Ecology is the study between living creatures and the environment. There are two different school of thoughts in this matter. First is shallow ecology. This kind of ecology views that ecology should be utilized sustainably in order to fulfil human needs and ends. The second school of thought, Deep Ecology, however has different take. Deep Ecology views that human should not be superior against any other species. This thinking led to have some kind of “Animal Rights” in the modern day.

Holism §

Holism is the thinking that the whole is more important than the part, meaning that there should be attention towards earth, environment, and so on, not only the interest of human being. This theme argues that earth is not a machine or resource to exploit. It is also a living thing and deserved to be treated well.

Sustainability §

Sustainability, on the other hand, is less radical than Holism. This theme views that the resource should be used wisely and sustainably in order to use it more longer. Sustainability support the economic growth, but growing more slowly.

Environmental ethics §

Environmental ethics refer to some kind of morality of human consumption of the nature. The most agreeable moral is about the cross-generational justice. This is the moral obligation of the present generation towards the future generation.

“From having to being” §

Green ideology views that “having” or “materialism” could undermine emotional well-being due to the greediness. Other than that, materialism is also the basis of environmental degradation because human prefer short term benefits over long term benefits. With this argument, green ideology views that the well-being of the people should be shifted away from materialism. This means that there should be a thinking of other rather than one self.

10. Multiculturalism §

Politics of recognition §

Three contrasting approaches can be adopted respectively based on the ideas of rights, redistribution and recognition.

• The notion of the ‘politics of rights’ is rooted in the ideas of republicanism, which are associated with liberalism. Republicanism is concerned primarily with the problem of legal and political exclusion, the denial to certain groups of rights that are enjoyed by their fellow citizens. For instance, republican thinking was reflected in first-wave feminism, in that its campaign for female emancipation focused on the struggle for votes for women and equal access for women and men to education, careers and pubic life in general.
• The contrasting idea of the ‘politics of redistribution’ is rooted in a social reformist stance that embraces, among other traditions, modern liberalism and social democracy. It arose out of the belief that universal citizenship and formal equality are not sufficient to tackle the problems of subordination and marginalization.
• The foundations for such a politics of recognition were laid by the postcolonial theories that developed out of the collapse of the European empires in the early post-World War II period. Black nationalism and multiculturalism can be viewed as offshoots postcolonialism.

Culture and identity §

Multiculturalism’s politics of recognition is shaped by a larger body of thought which hold that culture is the basic to political and society identity. In this view, a pride in one’s culture, and a public acknowledgement of one’s cultural identity, gives people a sense of social and historical rootedness. On the other hand, a weak or fractured sense of cultural identity leaves people feel isolated and confused, which result in what it has been called ‘culturalism’. In its modern form, cultural politics has been shaped by two main forces: communitarianism and identity politics. Communitarianism advances a philosophical critique of liberal universalism, which is the idea that; as individuals; people in all societies and cultures have essentially the same ‘inner identity’.

Minority rights §

The advance of multiculturalism has gone hand in hand with a willingness to recognize minority rights or is called multicultural rights. It was identified into three kinds of minority rights such as self-government rights, polyethnic rights, and representative rights.

• Self-government rights belongs to national minorities, indigenous people who are territorially concentrated, possess a shared language and are characterized by a ‘meaningful way of life across the full range of human activities. For example, the Native Americans, and Inuits and Metis people in Canada.
• Polyethnic rights are rights that help ethnic groups and religious minorities, which have developed through immigration, to express and maintain their cultural distinctiveness. For instance, this would provide the basis for legal exemptions, such as the exemption of Jews and Muslims from animal slaughtering laws, and the exemption of Muslim girls from school dress code.
• Minority or multicultural rights are distinct from the traditional liberal conception of rights, in that they belong to groups rather than to individuals. These rights are specific to the groups to which they belong. For example, legal exemptions for Sikhs to ride motorbikes without wearing crash helmets.

Diversity §

Diversity and unity can be blended. multiculturalists accept that people can have multiple identities and multiple loyalties. For example, to their country of origin and their country of settlement. Moreover, multiculturalists claim that diversity is possible, desirable, and should be celebrated. They also believe that diversity is of value to society at large. Another advantage is that by promoting cultural exchange between groups that live side by side with one another, it fosters cross-cultural toleration and understanding, and a willingness to respect the difference.

11. Islamism §

Fundamentalism and Modernity §

Since fundamental ideas are regarded as the core of a belief system, as opposed to peripheral or more transitory ideas, they usually have an enduring and unchanging character, and are linked to the system’s supposedly original or ‘classical’ form.

There are at least 3 main dimensions for the context of religious fundamentalism.

• it is commonly linked to a belief in scriptural literalism.
• as religious fundamentalism tends to be expressed through intense and all-consuming belief, it is often associated with a refusal to confine religion to the private sphere
• religious fundamentalism typically turns its back on a modern world that is associated with decline and decay, typified by the spread of godless secularism.

Islamism and Islam §

A lot of speculations are based on the fact that the idea of Islamism is based solely on Islamic ideas. Such a position suggests, furthermore, that any attempt to counter the spread of Islamism must involve a ‘war of ideas’, designed to weaken support for Islamist ideas and practices, in part by emphasizing that they do not represent the religion of Islam. An alternative approach to the relationship between Islamism and Islam is to identify contrasting tendencies within Islam, specifically between ‘reformist’ or ‘moderate’ Islam and ‘radical’ or ‘extremist Islam’. This distinction underpins attempts to counter Islamism through a strategy of ‘de- radicalization’, which aims to undermine support for radical or militant forms of Islam by bolstering a form of Islam that is compatible with the standards of a liberal, secular society.

Revolt against the West §

Western society is revolved around individualism. In due course, some western analysts were also converted to the idea of a civilizational struggle between Islam and the West, particularly as the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis gained growing support in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

The Islamic State §

Although the Islamic state is often portrayed as the restoration of the caliphate, significant differences exist between traditional forms of Islamic administration and the Islamic state as conceived by modern Islamist.

What are the differences!!

Jahidism §

However, the term has been used in at least two contrasting ways. In the form of the ‘greater’ jihad, struggle is understood as an inner spiritual quest to overcome one’s sinful nature. Jihad may nevertheless have either a defensive or an offensive character. In contrast, ‘offensive jihad’ means a struggle, by fighting if necessary, to establish Islamic order over all unbelievers, a goal that Maududi upheld on the grounds that Islam constitutes a program of ‘well-being for all humanity’.