In the first of my installments concerning the rise of Modernism, or the Moderno-Protestant Revolutionary Ideologies, I will briefly discuss what an ideology actually is (as opposed to a science, philosophy, or religion).
The fundamental distinction between ideology and authentic knowledge, is that an ideology pre-supposes an imaginary world and then measures the real world by how the real world fails to live up to the premises of the imaginary world (Marxism, feminism, various forms of socialism, racism, capitalism, etc.).
The vehicles of authentic knowledge are religion, philosophy, and science; in other words (or word), I am describing science . This is because these three paths are concerned with the real world, as it is... thus Truth. Now, many will complain that religion (and perhaps philosophy) should not actually be classified as vehicles of Truth, because different traditions oftentimes conflict with one another; however, science, philosophy, and religion all share a common limitation; they can be wrong, or provide an incomplete picture of the Truth.
This reality does not undermine my fundamental thesis, because all of these vehicles are evaluating and examining the real world.
A religion tries to explain the phenomena of the real world with reference to supernatural causes.
A science tries to understand the phenomena of the real world through an examination of those phenomena and rationally attempts to explain how those phenomena occur without necessary recourse to supernatural causes.
A philosophy attempts to understand the real world through a rational apprehension of material phenomena with reference to metaphysical, as opposed to supernatural, causes.
The Catholic Faith synthesizes all three of these approaches and completely subverts paradigmatic ideology.
Ideology, on the other hand, fetishizes some aspect of authentic knowledge and makes it central to understanding all phenomena. Also, an ideology presupposes that there is a fundamental conflict in human society that needs to be resolved (often violently). An ideology then asserts that there is only one way to resolve this contradiction and proceeds to judge all phenomena with this resolution in mind; therefore, this causes all material phenomena to be judged through the prism of this resolution. Finally, an ideology posits that the resolution of this contradiction will eliminate the basis of human injustice.
For example, Marxism recognizes that there is material inequality in the world and that this inequality leads to conflict within society; however, Marx then asserts that all conflicts are rooted in material inequality and goes on to explain the nature of the world as a conflict between those who control resources and those who do not. Finally, Marx tries to explain all human injustice as the result of these inequities and asserts that only by erasing them, can humanity be free of injustice.
Ideologies are attempts to explain worldly phenomena through a grotesquely over-simplified model of the world and of human interactions.
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