Ideological Nodes

"Assumption of a node being able to reach another node."

When one embarks on the journey of concerning themselves with ideology, Louis Althusser, French existentialist/Marxist philosopher, appears to offer an accessible, albeit wordy, interpretation that can give the general audience comfort.

Particularly, it is his thoughts of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and their unique properties that paints a compelling picture on human consciousness and culture.

What is important is the knowledge that an ISA functions by 'ideology' or rather 'ideas', and that the apparatus is rooted in the physical world:

Of course, the material existence of the ideology in an apparatus and its practices does not have the same modality as the material existence of a paving-stone or a rifle.... I shall say that “matter is discussed in many senses”, or rather that it exists in different modalities, all rooted in the last instance in “physical” matter.

In this instance you are adding a framework around ideas. Picture scaffolding around a building under construction that contains ideas within itself as the physical building is constructed. The significance of this mental modelling is paramount to not getting too carried away with the fluidity of ideas, where they only are fluid in their animation to thought but remain deeply rooted in an existing apparatus that is already set within the mind.

And to imagine ideologies is to imagine a block of marginally separated tenements all surrounding a cultural nexus warranting opinion and justifying belief. It it within this tenement block where ideas are spawned that support how complete/determined the houses are within the zip code. Like such a man:

If he believes in Justice, he will submit unconditionally to the rules of the Law, and may even protest when they are violated, sign petitions, take part in a demonstration, etc.

Conversely:

Indeed, if he does not do what he ought to do as a function of what he believes, it is because he does something else, which, still as a function of the same idealist scheme, implies that he has other ideas in his head as well as those he proclaims, and that he acts according to these other ideas, as a man who is either “inconsistent” (“no one is willingly evil”) or cynical, or perverse.