Ideology & Ideographs

Question 1

Language & Power

Answer 1

• We inherit a word-based language
• The power of language:
  a) Perceptions
  b) Actions

Question 2

Language’s Power: perceptions

Answer 2

language shapes our perception of things

Question 3

Language’s Power: actions

Answer 3

• Words compel us to do things

- Names affect how we think about things (Ex: Affordable Care Act)

Question 4

Ideology definition

Answer 4

a shared system of beliefs, belief sets which shape our reality & actions

Question 5

Marx’s definition of Ideology

Answer 5

held system of beliefs used by the ruling class and based on modes of production

Question 6

Ideologies: hegemony

Answer 6

• Ideologies get taken up through force (not consent) and this happens often when ideas are presented as common sense
• Common sense conceals the idea of who this benefits, so people don’t know
• Ex: Hitler, hating Jews

Question 7

Functions of Ideology

Answer 7

• Shapes worldview and identity
• Shapes a community’s beliefs
• Restricts free expression
• Expresses interests of the powerful

Question 8

Ideograph definition

Answer 8

• A hot button or virtue word without a clear definition that is used in a political discourse as warrants for beliefs and behaviors
• Like Chinese symbols, they signify and ‘contain’ a unique ideological commitment
• Suggest that each member of a community will see as a gestalt every concept or nuance in them (everyone will understand what they mean)
• Examples: , , , ,
• Can mean different things for different people

Question 9

McGee’s definition of Ideograph

Answer 9

“An Ideograph is an ordinary-language
term found in political discourse. It is
a high-order abstraction representing
collective commitment to a particular but
equivocal and ill-defined normative goal.
It warrants the use of power, excuses
behavior and belief which might otherwise
be perceived as eccentric or antisocial,
and guides behavior and belief into
channels easily recognized by a community
as acceptable and laudable”

Question 10

Functions of Ideographs

Answer 10

• Serve as guides, warrants, reasons, or excuses for behavior or belief
• Justify the use of power

Question 11

How do we analyze Ideographs?

Answer 11

• Isolate an ideograph: What are the organizing principles/ structure?
• Diachronic Analysis
• Synchronic Analysis

Question 12

Analyzing Ideographs: Diachronic Analysis

Answer 12

• Concerned with the evolution of what is being analyzed (how it changed over time to be what it is now).
  How has it been used to warrant behavior historically?
• When did it enter political discourse?
  (Ex: meaning of ‘democracy’ has changed over time)

Question 13

Analyzing Ideographs: Synchronic Analysis

Answer 13

• Concerned with only a certain moment in time of what is being analyzed (not with how it came to be).
• How is the term working in the contemporary moment, how does it cluster with other terms?
• What does it mean in present moment?
• What actions is it justifying?
• What belief sets is it furthering?
• Ex: Word ‘freedom’, we have to think about context, other related terms

Question 14

Ideographs: Goals of Analysis

Answer 14

• Allow us to study political ideology.
• Distinguishes rhetorical analysis from legal, historical, or etymological study of a term.
• Gives rhetoricians a way of studying more than just ‘formal discourse’

Question 15

Ideographs: Propositions

Answer 15

• The assumptions of the ideographs
• Everyone has inherited a ‘word-based’ language
• Everyone agrees on the meaning: that language is ideologically infused and culturally bound (a US ideograph way not work with french audience)