I wimped out....

I'm lazy, so I'm posting an old facebook note. My main point here is that while there is such a thing as absolute truth, people seem to take for granted that which may or may not be true. Like, modernist thought, for instance.

Here's a thing I've been thinking on concerning ideology, mainly drawn from a course I took in my first semester (a course that blew up my world): 

Essentially, I've learned that ideology is not a negative term. Rather, in this sense, it is the framework of what we could call "basic beliefs" that allow a person to more easily interact with their society. Without a framework of beliefs that say such basic beliefs as "This our society's current definition of the word 'God'," it would be impossible for humans to interact with each other. In essence, this paper (or at least my course) claims that every belief, from whether or not pelicans feed their young with their own blood (the reason that many old Christian prayers refer to Jesus as the "great Pelican," lol), to the definition of "Falling in love," is a belief that constructs the framework of countless beliefs that we call "ideology." This ideology, also, pervades every aspect of our lives, from our psyche, to our current economic system.

A case in point of an ideological belief's affect on our current lives:

 Descarte develops the idea "Cogito, ergo sum," "I think, therefore I am". 

(Now, whether or not Descarte intended these following interpretations of his statement is of no consequence, for this is the way his statement has affected the ideological framework of our society, and thus 

economic systems, etc.)

This statement implies: 

- Truth begins with MY human thought, MY human mind; the individual's thoughts, (evaluated from the individual's perspective); it is the bedrock of knowledge and truth, whereby we begin the journey of knowledge, faith, etc.

- Truth begins with MY mind, and other claimants of knowledge and authority, ie the church, the king, Scripture, etc. are obviously not the same as the MY mind

- Therefore, statements of the Church, king, etc. ought to be evaluated according according to my own sensibilities of truth, knowledge, and reason.

-Those beliefs which do not agree with my individual mind, (seeing as MY individual mind is the bedrock of truth and knowledge), are to be either ignored, modified, or rejected in order to conform more closely to my own particular notions of truth and reason.

-The  only way in my belief system, (which exists in my individual mind), can change is if a certain belief comes to seem more "rational," or "true" from extended evaluation (agan, this evaluation is from an individual's perspective).

     Now, other beliefs can possibly trace their origin to this statement, or at least are influenced by the "Cogito, ergo sum.":

-the percieved moral, political, and rational supremacy of the individual over institution

-this individual supremacy leads to the favorable view of democracy as the best current political system, with its emphasis on individual supremacy, and its belief that power is given to the institution by "the people" (or rather, the collective will of individuals)

- capitalism rises as the dominant economic structure, with its emphasis on individual work ethic, and attributing a person's economic status as the result of the individual's personal effort.

- Truth is relativized in an attempt to reconcile the seemingly contradictory beliefs that 1. an individual has the ultimate ability to find truth, and 2. Individuals have different beliefs concerning what is "true". Instead of denying or modifying the belief in the individual's ability to find truth, the different notions of individuals are called "THEIR truth" or "MY truth," or even going so far as to be self referentially incoherent and claim that "there is no truth."

it goes on and on. My point is, much of what we hold to be most dear is, in essence, the developments of society (Descartes himself would not have written "Cogito, ergo Sum" at all if the ideological framework of his time granted relevance and meaning to that statement.). I'm not saying that such beliefs are necessarily untrue, but we certainly should not take them for granted as being "true."

Sorry I wrote so dang much. You don't have to read all of it, but whatevs.