The-Ave.US

“Ideology” has become a dirty word in our lexicon, made disreputable by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and lesser (but still odious) practitioners of various “isms”. Closer to home, ideology now so distorts America’s domestic political discourse, not to mention policymaking, that it is hard to see ideology as having any positive or utilitarian aspects whatsoever.

Yet, ideology does serve a useful purpose by giving us a means to collect and organize ideas and focus on goals. For example, the typical American business is organized around the ideology of “profit.” Imagine how differently businesses would would be run if, instead, our prevailing business ideology was providing jobs for workers. As this simple example makes clear,  the choice of ideology has important consequences in terms of directing our actions.

In a democracy, everyone is invited to participate in choosing political leaders and formulating public policies. Now think about how vast the array of issues is, and how complex the decisions are. No ordinary citizen can get on top of it. We need some sort of shorthand capable of condensing and summarizing the choices before us.

That’s where ideology can have a useful role in public discourse. For example, let’s say (at the risk of gross oversimplification) that “liberalism” stands for a belief in community effort and mutual help, while “conservatism” represents rugged individualism and self-reliance. This (in theory) makes it easy to choose between potential leaders and proposed policies, without having to spend an enormous amount of time studying the intricate details, simply by labeling them as “liberal” or “conservative.” (It is not, of course, that simple in practice but then nothing is.)

When ideology is used properly, it’s a starting point for discussion, not the end of discussion. If we look at ideology as a cover sheet, followed by an executive summary and a detailed report, and then engage in thoughtful discussion after reading the report, ideology is constructively useful in the same way that the “profit ideology” facilitates a discussion of business strategy in an executive meeting room.

Our political discourse has gone off the rails because a growing number of people are using ideology as an excuse, figuratively speaking, to avoid reading the report or discussing its contents. They see ideology as a goal, not a tool for organizing thought and debate.  What follows is predictable. There is no discussion of what we are trying to achieve or how we can achieve it. Try to find it in the media, or in political debate, or in discussion among ordinary citizens. It’s not there anymore. We’ve descended into a situation similar to a CEO telling his executives to “make a profit” without any guidance on how the company’s resources will organized or what they will be used for.

Ideology is useful, even essential. Collections of ideas under “liberal” and “conservative” labels is a starting point for discussing how to address problems such as national security, unemployment, health care, and so on. The use of ideology in this context allows us to thrash out which approach to a problem might work best without getting lost in the details or particulars. But when people lose sight of the fact that ideology is a communication tool, not a destination, the process breaks down and we are left with a shouting match and an impasse in which nothing gets accomplished.

In sum, our democracy has become dysfunctional and our policy making apparatus is stymied because ideology is being misused. If we are ever again to have effective governance in our country capable of solving our problems, we first must renew our understanding of what ideology is for, and then put ideology back in its proper place.