the mechanisms that shape what we believe and how we behave

 the mechanisms that shape what we believe and how we behave
 “the hidden universal framework of ideology must be unmasked in order for liberating political change to be given a chance.”
“When we think we escape it, with our dreams, at that point we are within ideology.”
– Slavoj Žižek
 to believe oneself to be non-ideological is actually equivalent to being driven primarily by ideology.
No matter which orthodoxy we may live under, Žižek explains, we usually enjoy our ideology, and that is part of its function. Paradoxically, it hurts to step outside of it and examine it critically; by default we tend to resist seeing the world from any angle other than the one fed to us.
 Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Žižek sees this piece of music, at least the first part of it, as presenting the quintessence of an ideological frame, a structural template. He shows how this composition has been used as an anthem by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, South Rhodesia under colonial control, far left Peruvian guerilla forces, a pre-unified Germany when East and West participated in the Olympics as one nation in 1988, and the contemporary European Union. Ode to Joy provides an attractive but completely empty container that is devoid of all meaning, one that can be filled with any ideas whatsoever. The clichéd emotional image it provides effectively works to seduce and neutralize individuals, blinding them to their own reality
How does ideology seduce us into this edifice?” asks Žižek. It offers us little bribes. Take for example what he calls the high point and ultimate form of consumerism, a cup of Starbucks coffee. The posters in the cafés tell us that while the coffee may cost slightly more, Starbucks also donates a tiny portion of each purchase to some humanitarian cause in some poor country. With this cup of coffee we can be a “consumerist without a bad conscience”: the bribe we are offered is that we can save the world and enjoy ourselves at the same time. Because the price of guilt is already included in the cup of coffee – and thus we are doing our ostensible duty to the environment, or whatever it may be – we can fulfill our personal desires completely conscience-free. 

smoke our cigar while at the same time questioning our use of those ideological sunglasses.