Ideology vs. Ideal

I guess I am growing addicted to video demonstration. After all, they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” let alone a video clip. My thanks go to multimedia presentation technology.

This clip selected is an excerpt from my favorite video game of all times: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The universe of the game is set in the Cold War era after the Second World War. In this scene, the protagonist, a CIA operative code named Snake is about to have a final faceoff with his former mentor the Boss, who appears to have defected from the US to the Soviet Union. Before their tragic battle, Boss explains to Snake the reason of her defection and describes her ideology to her beloved apprentice, which also serves as a convenient visual introduction to my entry.

Earlier as I was reading Calvin’s post regarding ideology and identity, I couldn’t help admiring his vision for ideology on an individual basis. Calvin believes that people are unique individuals for they hold different ideologies that cannot be forced upon them by authorities or any outside influence. In other words, we are who we are because of our different beliefs and the freedom to form and hold on to them. That would be a world I would love to dwell in. Perhaps I am a pessimist. Reality presents itself a bit differently to me than to Calvin.

In my opinion, a fine line can be drawn between ideology and ideal. According to Lawrence Grossberg, ideology represents a collective system of absolute beliefs, ideas and attitude (Bennet, Grossberg and Morris, 177). Ideal, in a sense, would be a more personal approach to realize an ideology in my interpretation. Calvin gives a good example about the United States and the political parties in his entry, which I would like to borrow and elaborate on.

It is true that the Republican and the Democrat have very different practices of politics. However if we closely examine their core values, how different truly are they? Do they agree to practice capitalist or communist philosophy? Do they believe in democracy or totalitarianism? Do they support a free market or a centralized economy? All the aspects mentioned above are the essential philosophies in the foundation of a nation, which can be translated as ideology. On the other hand, whether the government should issue a tax cut (Republican) or whether the country should support gay marriage (Democrat) would be different methods to realize the similar core values. In other words, these are different ideals to approach the same goals.

As individuals we can certainly claim that we hold different ideologies and ideals. However, it seems nearly impossible for everybody to freely implement their own ideologies in a collective community setting: society. To survive as an accepted social member, people mold and adjust their ideologies to fit in with the larger, collective ideology by establishing and practicing different ideals. Should times of absolute defiance happen, immigration or even exile occurs.

Granted, it is a fairly dark picture I depict in the entry. However it is only based on my personal observation of the reality. Perhaps I am a pessimist. And that is my idealistic way to examine the world.