Ideology, Artistic Impression, and Freedom of Expression: Diversity of Political Cultures and the Richness of Human Culture and Mind

Abstract

This chapter introduces the ideas of Louis Althusser on ideologies as social practices. All political ideas form ‘ideologies' and the well-known ideologies are something that can be openly stated, defined and argued. However, more often ideologies are part of social practices and in this case they may remain rather invisible to the very people who keep them alive. In other words, intersubjectivity and ideology are closely connected. What this means is that most of the time most of the people are blind to their own ideological thinking. It usually takes an outsider or a person with a different way of approaching things to see clearly the ideological basis of other peoples' ideas and actions. After ideology the discussion moves to different motions of freedom and what they mean for artistic expression.