Ideology is actively created by people, not passively received from above.

Evidence

In ideology men do indeed express, not the relation between them and their conditions of existence [e.g., the socialization of labor under capitalism] but the way they “live” the relation between them and their conditions of existence [i.e., the way we live, through market relationships, the real conditions of capitalist production] … the expression of the relation between men and their “world” … the (overdetermined) unity of the real relation and the imaginary relation between them and the real conditions of existence. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 893 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Any decision-taking functions which still appear to be left to individuals are in fact taken care of in advance. The irreconcilable nature of ideologies as thundered out from the political platforms is simply itself an ideology of the blind constellation of power. The ticket thinking which is a product of industrialization and its advertising machine, extends to international relations. The choice by an individual citizen of the Communist or Fascist ticket is determined by the influence which the Red Army or the laboratories of the West have on him. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 163 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ordoliberal constitutions require active communal support, not mere state imposition — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 363; Ideology expresses how people live their relation to conditions, not the relation itself. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 893; Dominant culture operates as an active process of incorporation, not static ideology (+4 more)

Related

• Ideology expresses how people live their relation to conditions, not the relation itself. (similarity 0.88)
• Ideology is actively made from cultural resources, not passively received from above (similarity 0.86)
• Ideologies achieve effects by inflecting existing attitudes, not by domination or false consciousness. (similarity 0.85)
• Ideological choices are decided beforehand by power blocs, not by individuals. (similarity 0.84)
• Ideology works by framing alternatives within a range rather than dictating thought. (similarity 0.83)
• Concepts like ideology and representation remain indispensable for understanding society (similarity 0.83)
• Ideologies act on people structurally through a process that escapes them (similarity 0.82)
• Ideologies are material relations enacted through institutions and practices (similarity 0.82)
• Ideology represents imaginary relations to real conditions of existence (similarity 0.81)
• Ideology is made from pre-existing ideological cultural resources, not freely invented. (similarity 0.81)
• The concept of ideology was born torn between historical relativism and universal truth. (similarity 0.81)
• Ideology study requires explaining how non-ideas determine ideas without slipping into idealism. (similarity 0.81)
• Ideology is a material system of meaning, not merely false consciousness (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology expresses lived imaginary relations rather than actual conditions of existence. (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology is best conceived as systems of signifiers shaping social action. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Ideology expresses how people live their relation to conditions, not the relation itself. #complicates (0.82) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 893
• Dominant culture operates as an active process of incorporation, not static ideology #expands (0.78)
• Ideological choices are decided beforehand by power blocs, not by individuals. #contradicts (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 163