Mass ideology differs from the scientific syntheses that anchor it.

Evidence

It is true that an historical epoch and a given society are characterised rather by the average run of intellectuals, and therefore by the more mediocre. But widespread, mass ideology must be distinguished from the scientific works and the great philosophical syntheses which are its real cornerstones. It is the latter which must be overcome, either negatively, by demonstrating that they are without foundation, or positively, by opposing to them philosophical syntheses of greater importance and significance. Reading the Manual one has the impression of someone who cannot sleep for the moonlight and who struggles to massacre the fireflies in the belief that by so doing he will make the brightness lessen or disappear. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1543

Categorization

• SEED: The firefly metaphor — attacking the average run of intellectuals while leaving the real cornerstones of an ideology untouched — could anchor an essay on why critique of mass ideology fails when it never engages its founding texts.
• XREF: connects to: Mass ideology differs from the elite philosophical cornerstones that must be engaged. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1543