This piece is about an extract from
the book 1984 for George Orwell. However, for those who haven't read the book,
there are no spoilers. And the necessary context will be explained (hopefully).

What is an ideology? Form my simple understanding of ideology: is a
set of beliefs and idea that an individual or a group of individuals live by
and believe in its practicality and credibility. It can be found anywhere and
everywhere, in political campaigns, 
governments, religions, schools, families, a group of friends etc... The
more believers and followers an ideology has, the more powerful it gets.

Now, what does 1984
have to do with this? This classic is about a one-party state, where this party
is nothing humanity has ever seen (or maybe it did). It rules by tyranny and
oppression and it has and ideology that will literally transform any believer
into a submissive slave, who is 'loyal' to that party. In the book, those who
believe do not dare criticising the party even in their heads. They see the
world through the lens that the party provided and they do not know any better.

However, the protagonist of the our story was not quite a believer,
at least not one that the party wished to have. This person thinks. One of dilemmas he tried to solve is
how people really believe what the party says without having any questions
whatsoever. How can they not think when
all the evidence around them is screaming in their faces that this is wrong?
The party would plot one narrative of an incident today, and tomorrow they
would change it into something completely different and people would believe it
anyway. So he was always trying to figure out if people genuinely believed that
or if they pretended to believe in order to continue living. But then again, he
did not seem to find anyone who disbelieved. He was sure that no one would
express that explicitly and that is why he was trying to search for clues in
peoples' actions (because that is what truly reveals what we believe in).

As far as I have read, he did not seem to solve this dilemma, so I
will take my chances at solving it (ambitious, but why not!).

Our existence is way more complicated than we ever imagined it to
be. The more knowledge we acquire, the more certain we are that understanding
life is like going down the rabbit hole. Nevertheless, humans are extremely
intelligent creatures and if there is one thing that we know how to do, it
would be simplifying complex challenges (either consciously or unconsciously).
And since ideology is something complicated, we simplify it to a set of actions
that we can actually act out in the world. Instead of spending our lives
contemplating on how to form our own ideology, we embody one that already
exists. Because how the hell are you going to form an ideology that will
describe the entire world, and at the same time make it simple enough for your
mind to understand it?!

We live by it and we defend it because it is not just an ideology,
it is who we are. Refuting it, is the same as proving our entire life false.
And this is not something new. Go to any person who strongly believes in
something and try to form a valid argument (there are always valid arguments to
discard any ideology or belief) that will discard their belief; they will get defensive
quicker than you imagine. And really when you see someone insecure about
her/his beliefs, do not call them out on it when they contradict themselves. Let them live peacefully. Their
unconscious has worked hard to offer them a view of the world that is simple
enough for them to function properly.

Talk to those who are confident about their ideology and are ready
to see their arguments chopped down into tiny pieces without getting all
defensive and start attacking you.