Can political ideologies not justify their existence without their opposites?
An ideology is first a collection of beliefs declared by the individual to be (absolutely) true. This means, ipso facto, that there is a set of mirroring false positions. It is impossible to declare a set of truths without creating a like set of “falses.” As such, the rest of the world disappears in darkness because it collapses into what the ideology is not.
To frame the term “ideology,” consider the following terms: dysrational, irrational, or rational.
- Dysrational people are never rational. This thinking creates collectives, tribes, and cults. Children are dysrational; their tribe is the family;
- Irrational people are only sometimes rational. Here, emotions are not fully managed. Consequently, these individuals remain “propagandizable.” Specifically, emotions are used to program;
- Finally, rational people are rational (truth) first. That is, action (cognitive habit) is always and necessarily irrational, but it follows reason. The following Einstein meme here depicts a rational person: Initially and mostly rational, followed by quick and effective action.
Ideologues are dysrational. They make and sustain their tribe this way. Islamists are dysrational. Marxists are dysrational. Atheists
Ideologues are dysrational. They make and sustain their tribe this way. Specifically, Islamists are dysrational; Marxists are dysrational; Atheists are dysrational. Moreover, tribes share the same basic reason: collectivism, a direct consequence of their dysrationality. However, their particular ideology varies.
The ideologues then seek to “program” the irrational group with emotions, but irrational people can later wake up — i.e., escape the tribe. An event, suffering, or an argument can dislodge them from the collective. This is why the collective controls thought and speech. As a practical matter, ideologues must become totalitarian.
The ideologue thus demonizes ideological opponents to preserve their tribe. In other words, it’s not to make or define the ideology, but to circumscribe and protect it. Competing tribal factions appear and harden for the same reason.
In contrast, the rational group is not vulnerable to tribal thinking, but the irrational (middle) group is. The rational group is small. So they take up ideological arms against the threatening tribal thinkers, appearing also as a tribe (authoritarian). This, I imagine, is the basis for the capitalism vs. communism debate and why the Marxists (Islamists and Atheists), the true authoritarian collectivists, declare the capitalists to be fascists. But the capitalists are not. They are, as your question suggests, a pure byproduct of their opponents’ dysrational and authoritarian ideology.
