On Ideology and Seeking Satisfaction

Everyone wants something that will satisfy them in their lives. We are in a constant search of this item, or as Peter Rollins refers to it in his book The Divine Magician, this “sacred object.” We are tied to the idea that once we can finally grasp whatever this object is, we will experience satisfaction, security, or a sense of peace. The problem with this idea however, is that the very thing we thought would provide satisfaction ends up falling short of the ideal we had crafted in our mind. In this sense, when we seek a sacred object, we are like dog digging a hole under a fence only to discover that on the other side there is a much smaller and less entertaining yard. 

When we try and place some sort of excessive value on a particular object or way of being, we limit the potential of all other objects and ways of being. If I believe that a certain product will satisfy my need for fulfillment, say a car, I miss out on the value and potential that every other means of transportation can have. The best way to experience true significance and value is by allowing the value within the whole of a category to be felt, rather than simply a specific item within that category holding your steadfast focus. This is true for things as basic as transportation all the way to particular forms of ideology. However, in order for this to happen, it requires an individual to suspend the ill informed belief that individual items are capable of providing long term satisfaction. In doing this, satisfaction becomes something not sought after, but encountered through authentic, across the board experience.  

When we adjust our mind to see the potential in all things rather than placing a hopeful standard on one particular sect within a broader category, we begin to see nothing as ordinary and everything as holding some sort of worth. When we look for specifics to satisfy, we make an idol of individual items. But when we see the potential of all things, we are transformed to how meaningless and harmful the idol is due to the recognition that all things have. It is one thing to look at a light, but it is a whole other thing to use that light to see everything it is illuminating. A dog digging to another yard fails to recognize the full potential of the yard he already has, but even more troubling is the fence between the two yards because it represents a separation of potential. 

This has obvious implications for the way in which we go about forming ideology. Just as specific objects can be viewed as sacred, the same can be said about specific and stern ideological leanings. A person who holds to a very rigid belief system is almost undoubtedly doing so due to their longing for security rather than their longing for authentic life change and beauty. The sacred object is used as a sense of security, it puts blinders on our eyes, allowing us to be focused on a steadfast pursuit of one thing due to the comfortability that it offers. To rid of the blinders can be overwhelming, scary, and incredibly hard at first, but with it comes a much broader understanding of the potential of everything else around you. 

An ideology can do one of two things, put blinders on to everything else, or rid of blinders and see how ones ideology can extend and unite itself to other ways of thought. The second, at least to me, seems much more life giving. The question then of course becomes on what basis can we best unite ideology? I believe that the answer to that is found through a largely overused word nowadays; love. Love is quite simply, in this sense, the process of unification that results in a thriving coexistence. Love does not abandon ones core belief system, but it unites different cores. It first analyzes how ones ideological core could potentially be corrupt, and sees how the benefits of another way of being could mend the corruption that inhabits it and vice versa. Love does not simply accept with open arms because that’s the right or acceptable thing to do. Love seeks reform, reform that changes ones specific ideology first and then, in turn, others ideology in oder to unite the ideologies into a more fruitful and self aware way of being.

This requires people to analyze what they believe critically in order to see their faults. It requires a humbleness that at the same time doesn’t abandon conviction. Humbleness allows other ideologies to mend whats wrong in ones own ideology and conviction allows specific ideologies to not be taken over by ideologies not doing enough self analysis. Truth is discovered through conversation with differing perspectives. It is through that conversation that we can learn how to best reform our faults and the negative ways in which we go about doing things. For this to happen however, we must be able to not idolize our perspective, but rather use it as a springboard for conversation and reform.