ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers pedagogical techniques, drawn from various social-scientific disciplines, to weaken the power of bourgeois ideology and the socially shared stereotypes on which it depends. It offers an intellectual history of bourgeois ideology, from 18th-century England to contemporary American politics and religion. The book then argues that belief in the myth, regardless of the cultural context, is not limited to one social class; nor is it amenable to rational refutation. It also argues that socialists have often accepted Malthusian caricatures of the poor, sniffed dismissively at charity, and offered only radical posturing in the face of ubiquitous hardship. The book argues that literature can subvert ideological thinking. It also examines pedagogical strategies in the "post-truth" political era, in which President Donald Trump won office through the combination of unblinking mendacity and old-school demagoguery.
