The ideology of the masses

The ideology of the masses, if such a thing can ever be conceived as a abstract uniformed entity, is not the ideology of the ruling class, though the two may share a good deal of assumptions. The ideology of the dominated is an ideology based on a false perception of reality; it is handicap that the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, does not share with the dominated, it is a systematic lie the former tells the latter. Therefore the system of Bourgeois beliefs, forming an understanding of  the way that the system functions, must not be confused with its declared "convictions", its intellectualising of its political agendas, its pseudo-ethics, its increasingly pedantic, or highly  obscure "philosophies", its hypocritical religiosity, its aesthetics etc. All these are for consumption by the dominated and, in the long run, for profitable sale.

The bourgeoisie must have a perception as complete and true as possible, if it is to maintain its rule. It must be capable of the type of reality testing that enables it to function in a potentially hostile environment, paradoxically hostile as this class is, by and large, responsible for its making. If this capacity is impaired, and it is impaired when it believes its own lie that it feeds its subjugated masses, then it ceases to be capable of ruling.

The periods of ideological crises are those during which the ruling class has believed, to some extend, its own lies. And this happens because its own ideological character is ineffable, unexpressed, hidden, so much that it resorts inadvertently to consuming what remains available for ideological consumption,  its own lie, only to regurgitate it as though it is a universal system of beliefs. Everybody must be seen to be a "believer", or else he or she is characterised as an ideologically " abnormal", an oddity, a romantic fool or a dangerous phanatic...