In the study of moral theology and ethics it is helpful to begin with a sociological perspective on the process of moral decision-making itself.  When we make moral decisions we draw on many wellsprings of experience:  our emotions, values, attitudes, beliefs and our wider understanding of the implications of the issue at point.  Each of us is born and raised within a cultural context - this itself has a very significant bearing on the way in which we resolve moral issues.  This process can be explained diagrammatically (see below).



 Ruling Culture/Ideology                        Rubrics/Tort                       Case at Point                     Outcome


       
        Culture

 ↓          ↓
values         beliefs      →                set of rules / principles     →           situation / issue       →    interpretation of moral situation         
       ↓                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
        attitudes               
  
 __________________     
       ↓         
                                                                                                                                  
   view of self and others
      


We often relate to the world around us with generalisations.  These make a complex world more manageable - they are a necessary part of our communication with the wider world.  It is important to note that such generalisations are themselves the product of experience and as such are ideologically determined.  Generalisations are models of reality and as such are only valid to the degree to which they approximate reality itself.  Two important points flow from this premise:  generalisations by their very nature distort truth; and generalisations assume a pre-existent philosophical perspective.

Our society is the product of many competing philosophical forces, each bringing its own view of the human person, human destiny and human raison d'etre, and indeed, morality.  Sometimes these views are overtly expressed; at other times they are covert in nature.  Often these ideas are so much a part of life that we are not even aware of them.

Take for example the philosophy of liberal capitalism.  This philosophy places the entrepreneur on a pedestal as the ideal citizen - "the self-made man".   The capitalist provides money and entrepreneurial skill and through hard work and initiative becomes a self-made man, and in the process, creates jobs, wages and products to buy.  In this vision, workers are relegated to the level of a means of production:  the word 'worker' is itself an example of an ideologically defined generalisation.  Within its own terms of reference this is a logically consistent thesis.  It is only when we "fight an idea with another idea" that we become aware of its ideological roots.

John Maynard Keynes revolutionised economic theory during the late nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties by turning the entrepreneurial assumptions of liberal capitalism on their head.  He looked at production in terms of the level of consumer demand in an economy.  That is,  firms produced goods and services in response to demand for them - no demand, no production.  For Keynes, the entrepreneur was reduced to a reactive role - production, jobs and wages became a function of demand.  Although the individual entrepreneur might think he or she is setting up or expanding business due to his or her own initiative, when considered across an economy, entrepreneurs are limited by the general level of demand and the money market.  This principle where what is true for the individual is not true for the group Keynes called the fallacy of composition.  Keynes' view overthrew the evangelical role of the entrepreneur in favour of institutional corporate management.  Trades unions, the traditional enemy of liberal capitalism, for example, were seen as part of the process of national corporate economic management with an important role in the demand management process.  Keynes views paved the way for more recent technocratic theories of economic production.

One of the most pervasive ideas of our age is that of political democracy - in reality a system of elective aristocracy based on the idea of the nation state.  Democracy, in the Christian sense, is only realised when each is free to live the Gospel in peace and harmony with all others.  Democracy has often been used as a weapon to squash opposition and tread on human rights.   By the skilful use of emotive terms, power elites are able to keep the darker side of ideology hidden from people - freedom, self-fulfilment, loyalty and duty are all used to wed people to various veins of thought.   This is seen clearly in the tyrannies created by Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, but they are also present in our western style democracies.  Here ideology is not imposed so much from above by a single leader as by the collective consciousness and actions of plural elites through the media and control of formal and informal institutions in society.

If an ideology is to be successful, it must address human aspirations and address itself in moral terms.  This is why it is so important to look deeply into ideas, beyond the public face.  Terms such as freedom, commitment, duty and loyalty do not exist as abstracts, they only exist in relation to a set of values, attitudes or beliefs.  This is of course why they have universal appeal - they mean all things to all men.  Context is everything.

The television provides a wonderful insight into the values of the "mind makers" in our society. Persuasion, suggestion and imagery are the hallmarks of sophisticated indoctrination.  From the soap opera, to the news, to the current affairs shows, with the constant flow of advertisements, we are bombarded with ideas and subtly conditioned how to think about topics as far ranging as politics, the bloke next door and the latest blender.  How many are taken in by the skilful rhetorical gymnastics of the artful current affairs journalist and fail to see the contrived nature of the interview?  How many fail to see the constant battery of advertisements as creating a consumer and materialist outlook in themselves?  How many fail to see that the news coverage is highly selective and ideologically determined? (Suggestion:  next time you watch the news, watch it on a few channels and compare.)  Look at the movies made during the nineteen thirties, nineteen fifties and today - How have the values changed?  How have the heroes changed?  How is a Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck or John Wayne different from a  "new age kinda guy"?  How are women portrayed differently?

Propaganda is about marketing.  It is about putting the best gloss on something and covering up the bad points or the hidden hand.  The best form of propaganda builds on and orchestrates the native predispositions of people rather than imposing itself through violence.  It relies heavily on illusion and slight of hand and the masterful manipulation of generalisations.  It is ultimately concerned with the recontextualising of truths to create a new vision or understanding which is often far removed from reality.



Ideology need not be something complex: it can be something as simple as loyalty to a club or set of friends.  Individuals are assessed and valued according to their commitment to the group.  People are judged according to their performance on a selected narrow stage - the Martha / Mary syndrome outlined in the New Testament.  This is an especially important lesson for Christians, as it contains the rudimentary elements of oppressive ideology - human value assessed in terms of productivity within an arbitrarily defined set of criteria set up in opposition to the "obedience of faith" taught by Jesus (Mary's apparent inactivity is more virtuous than Martha's good deeds).  This is the primal root of "the stone rejected by the builders [becoming] the cornerstone"as taught by Jesus.  Jesus looks to the heart which inspires the action.  The heart is viewed within the context of our overall commitment in our spiritual life to the first commandment: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul, and your neighbour as yourself." And "The Kingdom of Heaven does not admit of observation".

Our moral decisions are heavily influenced by the world around us.  Each of use is inculturated into a society and a way of thinking.  This inculturation influences the way we see others, the way we see ourselves, and the way in which we relate with each other.  Our Christian faith invites us to build the Kingdom of God on earth.  This faith has a vision of the human person different  in many ways from the ruling ideologies in our culture.  We are challenged to rebuild our culture in the image of God, retaining what is good, purifying what is not and raising all to the sublime dignity of "the Word made flesh".