1. I would describe ideology as a belief system or system of ideas installed into individuals. An example of this would be a football organization having its players represent themselves a certain way when being interviewed by the media. This organization is creating a mindset for its players on how they should behave and act. Further more ideologies are installed all around us. At work their is one form of ideology, with a group of friends there may be another and at your parents house a different kind. All these environments have the ability to create ideas in which dictate how one should act in such settings.

2. The difference I see between Liberal and Conservative ideology in America is that Liberals are more for big government and Conservatives are against big government. Liberal’s support ideas like universal healthcare, assisted living for the unfortunate and larger taxes on the ultra wealthy. Conservatives support less taxes on the ultra wealthy arguing that if they were taxed less they could provide better pay and opportunities for the working class. They support big spending on the military and less spending on the helpless. Liberals want the governments help but don’t want the government to be a police state over them. As for conservatives they feel the government should stay out of most situations and be the up most authoritative to the average citizen.

3. Althusser’s definition of ideology is that if you distract the members of a society with the “choices” of freedom then they will feel free. Which keeps them content enough to conform to the system that the people in charge want integrated. If this doesn’t work and people do try to disregarded the system then you threaten or punish them with violence. The whole idea is to give people a sense of freedom so they do not think about inequality or fight for change. For example giving the people the right to vote for president in America. In all actuality the odds of either candidate making substantial changes is slim but the powers that be want the people to feel like they have a choice so they don’t try to rewrite the whole system.