Politics of Ideology

What is ideology? If it is not a school of ideas which remains dead the moment sphering is passionately done. Ideas were never static, it can never be. How come ideology fixed in a permanent school could be elavted in perpetuity? I'm amazed the way intellectuals align their obedience to a particular school. Ideological attraction has always been not less than passion regarding unknowns; the anxiety of mystery and excitement of a fresh friendship turns out to be a nightmare, the moment potentiality is actualised in "potentiality not to be" (Agamben, Homo Sacer). There is no one ideology in the world; ideas are created and reproduced in a time which we moderately know as normal; about which Thomas Kuhn coins a term, i.e., "epistemic matrix", Foucault names it as "ideological apparatus". Ideas evolve in its production, in its uses and misuses; it emantes most of the time out of pragmatic considerations. It is only when the ideas of existing matrix fail in solving current puzzles, the revolutionary shift in the matrix takes place which leaves the existing paradigm far behind; this scientific phenomenon is popularly known as "Kuhn loss" (Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). And and a new set of tools emerge to solve a different dynamics of crisis; which plays again an instrumental role in the transformation and elevation of "ideological apparatus". 

Politics of ideology is rampant throughout out the world. Zizek in his seminal work exposes the ideological game, played by various stakeholders of epistemia to rationalize any and every action in line with pre-established school. So for example democracy; why do we need a democratic state and what does the democracy achieve, these two questions are dealt by two philosophers in their separate compartment without taking a look what other says and articulates. Each one in her perspective may be correct, but in case of reversal of the perspective prior understanding appears to be a version of all too complex story. Personal experience and innate gift of nature, for example, these two aspects help us in making us what we are and what we are not! But ideology in its limited vision imprisons some ideas, some rituals in perpetuity; if at all some amount of flexibility is excercised sometimes by the thinkers of a particular school; they remain in a set of established paradigm, using old-school tools to solve a puzzle which has never been experienced before, or if at all experienced but in different manner and gravity. How come a fixed ideology will fit with the change? This is how we ignore the real message which appears behind the cosmetic appearances. Ideas are constantly in flux; most of the time evolving, adapting, but once a moment of crisis appears before the players of ideas; a new paradigm appears, transforms the old wisdom in oder to fulfill the existing necessity. 

Althuseer was right when he proclaimed about humans as "an ideological animal". We can survive hunger, we could fight against violence, but we cannot sustain without necessary illusions, ravaled and mystified. Ideology, most of the time, functions with the narratives of a few who provokes and disgusts some practices. The production of ideology has witnessed three different ideological apparatuses since ancient, medieval, modern, and post-modern epochs. Logocentricism, Pathocentrism, and Ethocentrism. Logos meant for reason, pathos meant for emotion, and Ethos meant for ethical and normative concerns. Logocentrism contributed immensely in the production of scientific knowledge which made our lives better and worst with the same knowledge. Rationalisation as a tool emerged only after the production of logos from this apparatus, and horrible colonial subjugation in the name of white men burden yielded immense cruelty against the colour people across the globe. Ethocentrism caused havoc for us in form of religious wars; it is only after the peace of Westphalia treaty the relative peace in Europe was achieved, but only till the pathocentric production of knowledge caused catastrophic horror to the world in form of two world wars, and consequent follow up of the cold war. Humanitarian crisis inside state and sometimes generated by international players for parochial interests. Pathos which emerged as a market ethics, which has already contributed in "subalteraisation" of masses at global scale. Thomas Picketty with his pen has produced the net effects of globalisation and marketisation of all social goods and virtues. Amidst all these catastrophic effects we have an inevitable outcome of the danger of ecological meltdown at the cost of materialistic development which is as elusive as any other ideology. Ethnic and the culture of mass violence require the "poetry of ideology" (Zizek, Mapping Ideology). And all sorts of sectarian narratives are the net results of rotten ideology which has never experienced the fragrance of fresh air. I'm amazed the way people get attached themselves with the ideology in nature of Right, Left, Centre, Liberal, Atheist, Marxist, Communist, Nationalist, Feminism, Post-modernist, etc. As if, one has understood the mystery of Universe. These territories are not more than few rooms of an ideological apartment which has to be escaped one day from "Platonic Cave" (Plato, Republic) to see if life offers anything better, the beauty of Sun whose horizon is being not known in artificial life of polis and metro-polis!