It’s quite interesting how the way a person thinks isn’t necessarily universal - some people are more rigid in their beliefs which has some correlation with a different chemical balance within brains and vice versa.
However, I’m quite skeptical when it comes to the concept of “ideological thinking” or “being prone to ideology”, as that’s not really how ideology works. Everyone is an ideological thinker, its how we view the world, have it make sense, it encompasses our thoughts and opinions at our most honest, lowest level. If anyone says that they’re not “ideological”, it’s only because they don’t recognize/understand what ideology truly is - after all, the classical definition of ideology is “that which you do without realizing it”.
Having the ability to change ones opinions and be a more “open thinker” can be part of ideology itself - after all, that’s what most people are taught in schools, and is part of the liberal MO (but with lots of exceptions on what can be changed of course, like what is “moral”). Reactionary ideologies promote the opposite view: the perfect world was in the mythical past where all was well, we should turn back time and go back to exactly how things were in that past.
At least from my perspective, a better conclusion could be that those who aren’t as rigid in their thinking can actually change their ideology easier. That’s how someone can step from conservatism to liberalism and vice versa, from liberalism to marxism, from conservatism to ultra-nationalism, but I’d argue that it’s mostly up to our environments to make us disillusioned with our current ideologies/removal of the social reinforcement of them rather than there being something inherent to our brains.
It’s quite interesting how the way a person thinks isn’t necessarily universal - some people are more rigid in their beliefs which has some correlation with a different chemical balance within brains and vice versa.
However, I’m quite skeptical when it comes to the concept of “ideological thinking” or “being prone to ideology”, as that’s not really how ideology works. Everyone is an ideological thinker, its how we view the world, have it make sense, it encompasses our thoughts and opinions at our most honest, lowest level. If anyone says that they’re not “ideological”, it’s only because they don’t recognize/understand what ideology truly is - after all, the classical definition of ideology is “that which you do without realizing it”.
Having the ability to change ones opinions and be a more “open thinker” can be part of ideology itself - after all, that’s what most people are taught in schools, and is part of the liberal MO (but with lots of exceptions on what can be changed of course, like what is “moral”). Reactionary ideologies promote the opposite view: the perfect world was in the mythical past where all was well, we should turn back time and go back to exactly how things were in that past.
At least from my perspective, a better conclusion could be that those who aren’t as rigid in their thinking can actually change their ideology easier. That’s how someone can step from conservatism to liberalism and vice versa, from liberalism to marxism, from conservatism to ultra-nationalism, but I’d argue that it’s mostly up to our environments to make us disillusioned with our current ideologies/removal of the social reinforcement of them rather than there being something inherent to our brains.