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The word ideology has many different meanings ranging from the philosophically neutral “science of ideas” to the value-laden “visionary theorizing”. It is in this last sense that I use it in this essay, a sense the denotations of which include Platonism, Marxism, Fascism, and capitalism in some of its forms However different they may be in some respects, these are all systems of ideas that have exerted a powerful influence upon human affairs.
Without denying the multi-faceted nature of ideologies, I want to focus on their psychology. Ideologies have a remarkable capacity for working powerful transformations in the lives of individuals. They can call forth heroic self-sacrifice; they can render drudgery euphoric; they can give meaning, purpose, and direction to the individual life and to an individual's experience of it Ideologies are no less remarkable for their capacity to unite individuals into organized collectivities and to convert ordinary fellow citizens and neighbours into brothers, sisters, comrades, and, especially, comrades in arms. Ideologies find or create enemies. The adherents of an ideology can easily find in it justification for the destruction of others even in the absence of any real threat, or for the subjection of others to the ideology's ideals.
Ideologies are characterized by a dangerous polarity — a polarity that can sustain a high level of beneficent mutual support among those who share the ideology's ideals and way of life and at the same time an equal and opposite self-righteous hostility toward those who do not share it.