ABSTRACT
The word ideology has so many ambiguous meanings and emotional colorations. The first meaning of ideology, as, for example, Marx used it in The German Ideology, is to deride the proposition that ideas are autonomous or the belief in the power of ideas to shape or determine reality. A second use of the concept is the argument that all ideas are conditioned—class-conditioned, zeitgebunden, language-bound; thus, all ideas are socially determined. A third, by now quite common usage, is to see ideologies as justifications which represent some specific set of interests. Finally, there is the viewpoint which sees ideologies as social formulas, as belief systems which can be used to mobilize people for action. With this in mind, the value system of the Soviet Union might be characterized as one of "ideological activism," that is, a self-conscious set of directives to change the society in accordance with a generalized theoretical doctrine.
