The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology: The Origins of Grammar and Future of Ideology

In the ordinary language of everyday life, as in the extraordinary language of sociology (be it academic sociology or Marxist), “ideology” is stigmatized as a pathological object. It is seen as irrational cognition; as defective discourse; as false consciousness; as bad sociology. That low opinion was one (not the most important, but one) reason why some scholars prematurely celebrated "The End of Ideology." As the subsequent history of the 1960s demonstrated, the rumors of the death of ideology were much exaggerated.* The truth, of course, is that ever since Auguste Comte's critique of "metaphysics," sociologists have been cheerfully celebrating such a death.