al jazeera

see after-thought (and note) below in blue

when al jazeera headlines an article
"ideologies clash in Wisconsin"
they are not being neutral
and they are not being accurate
not every belief is automatically an ideology

this is another case where al jazeera--whatever its virtues--strikes me as simply being
too much like the mainstream press

ideology is, above all, the tool of the ruling class
so long as al jazeera cannot or will not recognize that fact, they are lost

well,then again...
(after-thought)
maybe not
I"m not sure
I checked Andy Levine's "Political Keywords" and the entry on "ideology" seems
to back al jazeera: they were saying two comprehensively different political points of view
were conflicting.
Well, maybe, but even then I'm not so sure.
When the fight is between those who have health insurance and those who don't
or one group of workers who has better insurance and those who have worse....
that's not a clash of ideologies.
That's a trick because the social pie is being divided in such a way that the bulk of
the surplus is not going to any of those workers.
the worker who says "I want my fair share" and "those other guys have more than me"
is not expressing an ideology....
But I wish he would consider that some people have even more than "Cadillac" (sic) health care, and benefit more than the people he is targeting with is anger..... (but those unseen people are like that little guy in the Wizard of Oz---beyond the curtain... where is that little dog when you need him?),......

In any case I worry about the suggestion, a pejorative one behind "conflicting ideologies". Doesn't it suggest that it's not a matter of fact? not to be settled in some reasonable way? (If so, I would reject the suggestion. I don't think justice is just a matter of opinion, even if there are difficult questions in this neighborhood...)

NOTE

The eminent economist Nancy Folbre defines "ideology" in the following manner:

Following many other historians of economic thought, I define ideology as a set of rationalizations produced by powerful groups to glorify their own importance and advance their own interests.

(p. xxii, Greed, Lust, and Gender; A History of Economic Ideas, Oxford UP, 2009)