Ideas can blossom into growth, or they can ignite terror. People want to follow these ideas and see them to fruition when they emotionally impact them. It is generally a response to some form of discontent. The question is: are the ideas personal or are they from an agenda driven source? Have we lost the ability to form our own genuine ideas, or are we ignoring them in lieu of tribalism and groupthink? It feels good to assemble en masse. It feels good to exercise comraderie.
People can equally devalue the power of ideas when they don’t align with their own perceived compass. It’s easy to claim that they are devoid of intellectual content, or that they are irrational, inconsistent, etc. People underestimate the impact of this ideology because they are under the spell of the fantasy of “rationality.” Ideas do not have to be true to be believed. It is simply necessary that they evoke an emotional response within the minds of the people to whom they are conveyed.
We watch as politicians articulate their own emotions and fantasies through the vehicle of the ideas that they put forth upon the public stage. If a politician is to become successful, the ideas he conveys must resonate with the populace. The leader’s words must evoke emotions and fantasies within his audience that are not unlike the emotions and fantasies that his words evoke within him or herself.
Metaphors and images within the rhetoric of political leaders contain, evoke and bring forth latent fantasies into reality. An ideology constitutes a modus operandi, allowing unconscious fantasies to be activated and externalized into the world. Ideologies “capture” or harness energy contained with latent desires or fantasies, making this energy available for concerted, societal action.
The real question is, whose agenda is it?