ABSTRACT
An ideology may be defined as that part of his image of the world which a person defines as essential to his identity or his image of himself. At some periods of history, ideologies have exhibited sharp geographical boundaries and have been dominant in certain areas and almost absent outside them. When this has been the case the competition among ideologies has almost invariably been dangerous and costly, for the commonest way to change a boundary is through war. Each ideology becomes highly intolerant of the other, and the adherents of each ideology form an alienated minority on one side of the boundary and the dominant power on the other. An ideology is likely to be a syndrome in the image of the world, if one may borrow a term from medicine. A syndrome is a set of reinforcing symptoms and conditions all of which tend to go together. The danger of ideology is that it suppresses the learning process.
