Stand up for yourself

Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone's moral, political, or philosophical beliefs are "ideology".

Ideology, properly understood, is the imposition of a philosophy upon the world.   Philosophy in this sense is to be understood as a set of beliefs and principles which may or may not be true. Because ideological philosophy (or beliefs) is imposed upon the world, it can be used to explain everything in the world.  Ideologues know everything, and can explain anything that happens.

Ideology can be contrasted with true knowledge.  True knowledge is much more limited than ideology.  It is more humble. True knowledge, rather than being imposed upon the world, comes out of our experience in the world.  True knowledge comes from nature, reason, and revelation.  It comes "from without" rather than "from within".  True knowledge imposes itself upon us - we impose nothing upon true knowledge (think - what say do I have in whether 1+1 = 2).

The notion that political conversation and discussions about morality and mores are nothing but the competition of ideologies is a self-defeating skeptical point of view, but a very democratic point of view.  This position is normally coupled with a belief that the most-powerful always end up ruling.  I think this is the dominant theory of our republic today, evidenced by the growing number of people who are enthralled with the idea that society is controlled by a powerful, elite few.  Witness the "Occupy" movement, who blame "the 1%" for their woes.

Believe something long enough and it will become true.  Or we can stand up for ourselves.