problem of ideology in contemporary politics (Thesis Sample)

The Problem of Ideology in Contemporary Politics: Libertarianism
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Although libertarianism has degenerated into neoliberalism championing less socialism, hyper-capitalism, and the "woke culture," it remains the most potent political ideology because it facilitates radical inclusion across racial and ethnic lines and free speech to counter social injustice. Prolific philosophers have debated for years on which ideology, or rather, philosophy, is best to steer society. In fact, a study done on Mikhail Gorbachev’s Russian regime reveals just how much ideology inter-marries political culture. That said, ideology is quintessential to the success of a political regime. Evidently, Gorbachev’s regime had suffered prior the 1980s due to a poor ruling philosophy that saw the Soviet Union collapse. However, he ended the cold war by eradicating totalitarianism in Russia in favor of more socioeconomically liberal policies, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Therefore, one wonders what ideology is and the power it wields in steering a sovereign nation’s political narrative.[Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology (2018), para. 26.] [Archie Brown, Ideology and political culture." In Politics, society, and nationalityinside Gorbachev’s Russia (2019), p. 1.]
Ideology is motivated cognition. In layman’s terms, ideology is a philosophy that thrives on stigmergy and swarm intelligence. Swarm intelligence is the phenomenon by which two or more individuals interact and share opinions with the aim to mitigate a cognitive conundrum in society that is blurry to each individual independently. Stigmergy is the self-organization of the social intelligence gathered, implementation of the intelligence in the group, and structured effort for reaction. However, just because certain ideologies are popular among certain people, it does not mean that their swarm intelligence is correct or just, as witnessed throughout humankind's history. The same cruel history has revealed that society must believe in something, and whatever governing philosophy satisfies the majorities’ interests, it is adopted immediately. One then ponders on why humankind leans towards ideology, regardless of the drastic effects it could yield.[Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology (2018), para. 6.] [Mark Wood and Crissy Thompson, Crime prevention, swarm intelligence andstigmergy: Understanding the mechanisms of social media-facilitated community crime prevention (2021), p. 2.]
Perhaps an example would perfectly expose the fatal flaw in prescribing to ideologies; a boy always believed that the earth is flat, even in school, he would argue with his colleagues. In order to quench his curiosity, the boy consulted his teachers, and they all opposed his ridiculous notion. Further on in life, the boy, now a man, argued with his college tutors who propounded that the earth is round. Still, he was convinced that the world was flat, and a deep-seated conspiracy surrounds the fact. Upon his death, the man took the opportunity to consult his heavenly master, who still asserted that the earth is round, not flat. Afterward, the man sighs that the conspiracy theory is beyond God!
The man aforementioned was infested with “dogmatic mind parasites.” Ideologies harbour dogmatic mind parasites within individuals in that they are so rigid-minded that any opposing view, however plausible, is untrue and unacceptable to them. Dogmatic mind parasites are the fatal flaw within ideologue-prescription. Wise men argue that the most complicated person to teach is always convinced that they are correct, for they can never see any fault with their reasoning. Consequently, such individuals lack a rational lens in reviewing matters within society and governance. Dogmatic mind parasites attribute to the blind devotion to a particular political course and culture, as observed in recent history and contemporary America.
Mark Weiner’s rule of the clan theory best explains why ideology is deeply rooted in most societies. Within early human development and interaction, cultural institutions and constitutional principles shaped individual freedom. To expound further, an individual's thoughts and actions are determined by their immediate surroundings, such as kin or society. In this case, the immediate environment is referred to as the clan, and the clan's ethics and culture mold the inbred psychologically, spiritually, and philosophically. Coincidentally, community members achieve true freedom and individualism through clan structure and governing tribal principles. The dual-process theories of reasoning propound that type 1processing is heuristic, intuitive and automatic, while type 2 processing is algorithmic, analytic, and reflective. Either way, both reasoning models are evaluated using cognitive bias to reveal the disparity between belief-based reasoning and sensible-mathematical reasoning, and the latter is often neglected. Consequently, ideologues have always been in societies since the dawn of time and are biased to the clan’s beliefs and culture.[Mark Weiner, The rule of the clan: What an ancient form of social organizationreveals about the future of individual freedom, (2013), p.287.] [Robert Ricco, Koshino Hideya, Sierra Anthony Nelson, Bonsel Jasmine, Jay VonMonteza, and Owens Da’Nae. Individual differences in analytical thinking and complexity of inference in conditional reasoning (Thinking & Reasoning 27, no. 3 (2021), p. 2.]
Therefore, initial ideologues were conservative and centered on tribal progress. Later on, following the spread of enlightenment philosophy across Europe, individual-centered ideologues were adopted and fuelled by radical theories such as Karl Marx’s communist manifesto. The evolution of ideology was so divergent that it led to a political divide forming today's two major factions: left and right wings. The political range along ideologies was so fierce that it facilitated the two world wars and myriad other warfare long after. The Second World War was navigated by a right-wing political divide steered by the British, a conservative party. Hitler led the Nationalist Party in Germany while the Italians birthed and embraced fascism. The liberalist Americans, the socialists, capitalists, and corporatists sat in the left-wing corner. Even though some of the countries shared similar views on governance along the political margins, no amicable solutions and compromises were engineered at the time. Perceptively, it was a war of ideologies.
There are four ideologues across contemporary America between both political divides; liberalism, libertarianism, conservatism, and populism. Otherwise, some Americans identify as moderate. That said, the most revolutionary ideology that offers promise for a cohesive society is libertarianism. If there were a philosophy that could surpass dogmatic mind parasites, it would be libertarianism.[Alex Dopico, What Political Ideologies Led to World War II? (2022), para. 2.]
Libertarianism is a political philosophy that champions minuscule government
intervention in the communities' private lives, the free market, and individual dignity. libertarianism borrows its principle from liberalism, which means that the ideologue fosters politically progressive views to improve social welfare and social democracy, which strives for a peaceful transition from a capitalistic to socialist society. Following America's gritty past of racial abuse, civil rights unrest, and police brutality, which disproportionately affect the black and brown folks in the country, the nation has diverged sharply from conservatism and the right-wing political divide, for they do not cater for radicle inclusion of the community along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, libertarians' hatred-steered antagonism towards the government seeks to limit government coercion. Otherwise, they would be anarchists.[Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology, para. 6.] [Ibid, para. 14.]
Under libertarianism, marginalized communities along sexual orientation and
preferences and gender are quite welcome and appreciated. Actually, it was not until the libertarian wave that the LGBTQ+ community found a voice in society and their struggles brought to light. No other political ideologue prior even catered for such eccentric individuals in the society; perhaps it would be a breach of the law of the clan that is mainly counter-progressive. Free speech boasts as the most incredible tool utilized by libertarians so that everyone can contribute to the political narrative of the country. Under the simple principle of freedom above all, most of contemporary America, especially the younger generations, lean towards libertarianism.
However, the repercussions of abandoning the law of the clan for progressivism have its effects. One such result is that libertarians are not concerned for virtue or equity. Moreover, libertarians have no sentiments whatsoever regarding religious beliefs. Religious communities, which differ sharply in identity, definitely exacerbate current divisions. The lack of emphasis on cultural adaptation and civic belonging has seen to the transformation of libertarianism onto neoliberalism and mere "woke culture."[Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology, para. 22.] [David Albertson and Jason Blakely, From Here to Utopia (2021), para. 12.] [Ibid, para. 7.]
Neoliberalism, perceptively, is the transition of libertarianism from less socialism to hyper-capitalism. Myriad democratic socialists were confident that a structural reorganization would facilitate revolutionary change; the American Utopia would conscript the whole community into the armed forces and spread educati...