Ideology in everyday life

The famous neutrality-thesis in relation to things (technology) is formulated somewhat like this: "nothing wrong" with the things, only the user held responsible. This is true because ethically speaking, we cannot blame things let say, knife to stab or injured people like what happened in Japan several days ago, a man with Joker Costume injured people on train and of course, he is to be blamed not the sharp object that he uses. However, in today world we must also be cautious on the tools that we use because almost everything all in our world has ideology behind it and it can influence us as well, consciously or even unconsciously. 

When we buy Apple product for instance, we feel that we are wealthier and also  modernized a bit and it is because the Apple product project itself as luxurious stuff. The buyers feel superiors, at least, it is what I seen in the grass-root with those who owned it (Not all). Here we can conclude, not we are the one who uses tools, our behavior also be influenced by the tools and by the ideology behind it, like for instance the technology of virtual reality. Like what French philosopher once wrote, the ideology behind it is to reverse the order, to abolish the real and substitute it with the virtual as the new-real.

When we talk about ideology further do, especially for today, we can argue for the case on how political ideology has infused all areas of life. Let say media. We perhaps will agree with Donald Trump in 2018 whereby he says what you seeing and what you reading is not what happening. Lies become the ideology that has return in power and take control on everything. When Nazis tried to murder millions they uses ideology of lying as weapon. Lying is the old politics but still being used up till today, even we can say, with a greater form. When truth is summited to the power, that is the sign that the ideology has been reigned. 

Also in US several years ago, the ideology of fascism was clearly shown as they blame immigrant almost for everything. Accompanied with the hate speech continuously being said over and over, once again human being repeat the same posture of Nazi Germany in the past who believe that Aryan people is superiors. The rest are the "enemies of the people" that can and should be terminated for better or for worst. Richard Evans, a historian once wrote, 

"The Nazis acted on the premise that they, and they alone, through Hitler, had an inner knowledge and understanding of German soul" 

No wonder, Robert Paxton, the Columbia professor and author of The Anatomy of Fascism says Trump as a leader who embrace fascism. 

I suggest that when we interact with people, tools and everything around us we should now ask, what is the ideology behind it? The bottom line is to be critical as much as possible. Ideology basically is not bad nor good, it is neutral because ideology basically is an idea that is held important by people. But what kind of ideology is the thing that really matters. Even ideology is an important idea, it does not mean it always right and good. Some would argue that all ideologies are equal, but they are only minority. And many debate still going on but for myself, I don't buy for the idea of all ideologies are equal.

But interestingly, the collections of ideologies are formed to what is frequently called as Weltanschauung, or world-view. In other words, worldview is a structured and systematized ideology. And nowadays, there are many ideologies in the world such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, fascism, anarchism, and many other more. The number keeps on going as new ideologies arise. Here, to know a bit of ideology (political), I recommend book entitled Political Ideologies edited by Vincent Geoghegan and Rick Wilford. Also, Ideology: A Very short Introduction written by Michael Freeden. 

Up to this point, In respond to the ideology in everyday life I venture to argue that the better we know what's that all about, the meaning of those ideologies, their characteristics, distinguish elements and the aim-goal, the better we know the world in which we are living, and not becoming a mere puppet of "bad" ideology.  

last but not least, it is vital to develop not just critical thinking (Logical) but also cultural thinking (Contextual) and only after those process being made we can make a good reflective-judgement and respond. Truly, the best man is the one who realize that there is an ideology in everyday life and create a distance and give a proper respond, they are the one who is armed and guarded in the world that is full of clashes of ideologies, the battle that shape not just present but also the future.