- Ideology is what a particular group or a set of people believe in. The group of people share these beliefs, value or ideas and believe that life should be run this way. Everything starts with an idea. One person has an idea, they share it amongst the crowd and everyone begins to believe in the same idea which leads to ideology. For example: one person thought that we should all have freedom of speech, they shared the idea to a friend or a neighbor. Each person passed the idea around, an idea that now they are believing to be the right way to live and now the group of people are liberals.
- Ideology factors in both nature and nurture. Usually what you believe in is highly influenced by your race,gender, religion or ethnicity. For example everyone could assume that women in general would learn toward being a feminist who believe that women can do it all, women can rule, women can do just as much as men but the way someone was raised can alter there beliefs and values. The women might believe in equality in women but not be a feminist. The women might not be a feminist at all and believe the opposite. Who we are, the people around us and our culture shape our ideas and where we stand in society.
2. The difference between conservative and liberal ideology in US politics is that conservatives believe a large government posses a threat to our liberty while liberals believe in equality. One of the big arguments would be on taxes. Conservatives want to lower taxes but liberal want to higher the taxes on the rich who so happens to usually be the class that majority conservative. Another one would about the military. Conservatives are patriotic and believe in a high defense but liberals believe that the government should cut military money and spend it on other things.
3. According to Althusser, ideology is the way people experience and make sense of their relationship to society, especially the social structures they are in like school. So basically our life experiences feed our ideas in what’s good or bad. For example the structure of school teaches us how to obey, therefore it continues the cycle of ideology because we are internalizing it. Althusser became curious in knowing what makes people act against there interest and discovers that its fear.
