Ideological repression refers to forceful activities against competing

ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

and philosophies.

Alan Wolfe Alan Wolfe (born 1942) is an American political science, political scientist and a sociologist on the faculty of Boston College who serves as director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. He is also a member of the Advisor ...

defines ideological repression as "the attempt to manipulate people's consciousness so they accept the ruling ideology, and distrust and refuse to be moved by competing ideologies".as cited in "Television as an Instrument of Terror", by Arthur Asa Berger, p. 369 In the early days of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and in other countries, ideological repression was carried out by

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

of the carriers of competing ideologies. Instruments of ideological repression are

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

and

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

. During the days of "Marxism–Leninism" in the Soviet Union – around the early 1930s – students of this particular school of thought were given textbooks that encouraged one particular way of thinking (the Marxist way) as being paramount and the most scientific and true school of thought. Through ideological repression and control of output information, the Soviet Union was attempting to keep social revolutions at bay.

References

{{Discrimination Ideologies Persecution Political terminology Political repression Censorship Freedom of expression

See also

References