Is your salad dressed in ideology?
On a groggy Sunday morning grocery shopping spree, as you enter the cereal dedicated aisle, do the sky high shelves, supporting the categorically arranged boxes stump you? You rummage through the endless labels, reveling in the illusion of choice before the gleaming rack at another corner of the maze, screaming Organic, sways you towards it. The word, ascribed to eating well and good health. Well, you may not have consumed the pesticides that the last box had, but you’ve definitely consumed the ideology with this one. This article is to make you stop short in your slow drift towards these ideological shelves and continue only if you’ve understood what they stand for, be it good or bad.
So what is an ideology in simple words?
An ideology is a set of opinions or beliefs of an individual or a group. These opinions and beliefs, often but not necessarily, political in nature, characterize a particular culture and subsequently come to regulate it. The term ideology was first coined in the late eighteenth century by French intellectual, Antoine Destutt de Tracy in the times of French Revolution.The concept of ideology can be explained as below:
The term ‘ideology,’ seems to have a negative connotation to it, like the Marxist tradition understands it. But from the above chart, we are introduced to another school of thought that merely studies it as an organised system of beliefs and traditions. Hence, ideology is not just of Hitler’s but also ingrained in our everyday lives, by the infinite number of ideas, we’re eternally surrounded by. But, It’s not easy to tell people to think and believe in a certain way. Then how do socio, political and economic movements take shape? This can be understood by analysing the rhetoric of ideology.
Burke says, “ideology cannot be deduced from economic considerations alone. It also derives from man’s nature as a symbol-using animal. Ideology is a rhetorical construct having no existence apart from its expression as a symbol system.”
The rhetoric used in the propagation of ideas take the form of symbols, words, conventional expressions, idioms, metaphors, narratives, and recurrent argument patterns that are constituted and reconstituted through a variety of discursive and symbolic practices (e.g.public speeches, journalistic practices, novels, fllms, rituals, advertisements, slogans). These tools are constantly at work trying to reinforce the principles and beliefs of different ideologies.
You might think that you’re immune and no ‘symbol system’ can touch you. But, guess what, it already did. It not just touched, but also reprogrammed you in its accord, through a process called Interpellation.
Interpellation expresses an idea is not simply yours alone but rather has been presented to you for you to accept. Our attitudes towards gender, class, caste, race is through mere social process depending on the culture one belongs to. Accepting or not accepting a culture’s given attitudes places one in a particular relationship with power. It is not forced but since these roles are present everywhere around, we are encouraged to accept them. The term interpellation was an idea introduced by Louis Althusser, French philosopher.
Let’s understand a little more about interpellation:
The authority and subject relationship makes people receptive to ideologies. From the position, of power, desired set of opinions and ideas are assimilated among the subordinates. Then, what the Marxist theory describes as an infection, the powerless are injected with a virus, good or bad, that turns their agency around, making them believe, these ideas, to be their own. This parasitical process is called interpellation.
These power structures emerge as an effect of ideology. They thrive “to legitimate the sectional interest, in ways that conceal their social domination.” Ideologies, therefore, play a crucial role first in constructing our identities and then giving us a particular place in society. To say that someone is fully interpellated is to say that he or she has been successfully brought into accepting a certain role, or that he or she has accepted intended values willingly.
Interpellation is the idea that we are “bred” to think, act and react in certain ways. We are interpellated from the day that we are born into specific roles that society has created for us. Interpellation can be found in many situations. Girls being portrayed in Indian soap opera taking care of household chores is an example of gender role interpellation.
In the film, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, writer & narrator of the film Slavoj Zizek, explains about the concept of ideology & interpellation through the lens of analyzing another movie. This can seen in the short video:
When we talk about the ideologies that the culture of food is built or is developing on, one cannot help but take note of the counter cultures that have emerged. Dietary practices are cultivated through our lifestyles, where we’re free to decide what to eat. Some of us are purely guided by our likes and dislikes, while some are swept away by idealized eating patterns, for several reasons concerning not just health, but also other social, economic and political factors. Hence, to understand how these factors drive people into different food ideologies, we examine their rhetoric along with the supportive process of interpellation, in the context of Veganism.
To begin with, it’s important to understand what it means to be a vegan. The Vegan Society (1979) in England, in its Articles of Association defines veganism as follows:
Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose; and, promotes the development and use of animal‐free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment. The definition itself extends beyond the purview of nutrition, explaining why it has such a wide following.
As an ideology it has attached with it, a conscience that’s concerned with issues like mass production, animal rights, agricultural exploitation, sustainability, industrialization that has led to the consumption of packaged food more than its fresh form, etc. It has embedded in it values and beliefs, making it a system of symbols that people associate with.
Let us now analyze the rhetoric used by its propagators, who establish strong systems of guilt inducing symbols in place. The most powerful emanator of this ideology is an organisation called People for Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA), which would be a case in point.
In the above campaign, the words “Meat stinks” symbolises a heavy political baggage of animal rights that it carries with it. Not just meat, but the practice of consuming it also stinks because you are ethically wrong, for having killed an animal.
In the video below, it is associating meat eaters with serial killers.
Now, in this video PETA interpellates people into accepting veganism. The use of the words, ‘meat eaters as serial killers’ is an immediate act of calling them out for their actions. The video makes each viewer identify a meat eater as a ‘serial killer.’
It presents an alternative of not being a ‘serial killer,’ by going vegan, which is, the right thing to follow. The recurrent arguments that are made by the meat-eaters in everyday life, are the arguments that the ‘serial killer’ in the video is presenting, giving out the idea that they’re no different. Nowhere the video talks about the nutritional aspects of veganism, but rather, how it’s morally incorrect to kill anyone in a broader sense.
The process of acceptance and the practice of an ideology by an individual, is what Althusser describes as interpellation that slowly starts to become one’s identity. In the context of veganism too, a similar process is observed.
In his book Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating (Washington Square Pub, New York, 1980), Peter Farb explained the transition that takes place in people who eat “health” food. “As they develop their own network of communications, the faddists gradually extend their beliefs about food to other avenues of life until, in time, they arrive at a full-blown ontology, or world view, that encompasses religion, government, economics, environment, and sex and the family. The nutritional value of food, once the central issue, becomes almost secondary”.
This transition, enabling a person to self-regulate for a greater good in association with an identified group, thereby forming a subculture, is what feeds and sustains propaganda, in this case, veganism.
This ideology which promises greater good of the planet, does not stop at what you eat. It has successfully seeped into the lifestyle of ‘vegans,’ which has emerged as an external social group, whose participants see it as an important part of their identity. Their ethical dilemma extends to the products that come at the cost of animal welfare. A whole culture around this has taken shape, where the specific needs of these individuals are catered to through vegan restaurants, clothing, cosmetics and so on.
This not to say that ideology is bad or should be avoided. But it’s important to understand how things come into being, whether it’s the planet saving veganism or futurism that only manifested in the future. History has a way of influencing the present, through means like countercultures, which are guided by ideologies (none of which we’re born with) good or bad, political or not. All that possibly remains under one’s control is perhaps self-guidance.
Before you do, we would like you to think about why do you eat what you choose to? What are your food patterns like? Have they been shaped by one of the above mentioned ideas or by any other movement, in the footsteps of becoming the next big thing?
References:
- Jasinski, James. Sourcebook on Rhetoric-Key concepts in Rhetorical Studies. Sage Publications, 2001.
2. McGee, Dr. Chris. Longwood.edu. n.d.
3. Hirschler, Christopher A., “An Examination of Vegan’s Beliefs and Experiences Using Critical Theory and Autoethnography” (2008). ETD Archive. 134.
