No Ideology

Not every UCL student will be joining the protest march tomorrow. There has always been a part of the student body, necessarily quiet (because it has little to articulate), but large nonetheless, that professes no interest in politics of any sort, student or otherwise. To try to win the votes of this valuable demographic, candidates in UCL Union elections use a language of common sense, or promise that they will “represent all 22,000 students without fear or favour” [1], which is code for ‘I am not friends with Michael Chessum.’

During the latest Union elections, a couple of weeks ago, I saw a poster for one of the candidates for the position of Student Trustee. It consisted of a black rectangle, on which was written in white: “Vote ____ for student trustee. No Ideology – interested in you!”

According to Terry Eagleton, ideology could be one, or perhaps several, of the following things:

a) the process of production of meanings, signs and values in social life;

b) a body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group or class;

c) ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power;

d) false ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power;

e) systematically distorted communication;

f) that which offers a position for a subject;

g) forms of thought motivated by social interests;

h) identity thinking;

i) socially necessary illusion;

j) the conjuncture of discourse and power;

k) the medium in which conscious social actors make sense of their world;

l) action-oriented sets of belief;

m) the confusion of linguistic and phenomenal reality;

n) semiotic closure;

o) the indispensable medium in which individuals live out their relations to a social structure;

p) the process whereby social life is converted to a natural reality.

He wasn't elected.

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[1] The candidate who made this promise is secretary of the UCL Union Conservative Society.