Ideology
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal speaking at Our Lady of Grace' Men's Club:
People take a look around and see who might be with them; or like them; and who against them. From these slender suppositions people make assumptions about their self-interest and that of their progeny. From this potpourri comes political ideology. In the past I was against the idea of a gasoline tax to put a floor under petroleum prices in order to bolster production of alternative fuels and restrain excess consumption. I was against this because I was having trouble making ends meet financially; couldn't see paying more to fill up my car and believed that the great United States could and should force it's will on foreign cartels and their intermediaries the international oil corporations. I did not choose to understand the reality of money or of the finite. I found myself in league with parties who did not have my long-term interests at heart.
The manipulation of these suppositions into propaganda turns politics from a weak cousin of philosophy into bullshit. -- Far better to quote an aphorism like: "Keep your eye on the Lord and try to do the right thing -- at least some of the time," than get caught up on the various teams. Always remember that the power of money doesn't much care for you unless you already have some of it. Philosophies of markets don't seem to have ever visited a real one.