Elaboration on Ideology.

At first the meaning of Ideology escaped me or better yet I was having a hard time piecing it together in my mind, so bare with me on the following.  A dominant group, power wielding organization or even one influential individual proposes an idea to their small town, local community etc...  In some cases what they say goes if enough hype is provided to the masses .  To highlight a bit of this fact our professor showed us a clip from the musical The Music Man.  Showing that the main character needed to create a negative in the town he was in, in order for him to propose a positive being him starting an all boys band to sell and teach musical instruments. The main character was using the negative response for his own personal gain.

One of our discussions during the first few meetings in class was about who are the people telling us what's in & what's out.  Is it people who are older but know how the public works and what they would like and not like? Is it a boardroom made of older gentlemen who just happen to know what today's youth is in to?  Is it a younger generation close to the demographic in age and taste?  Truthfully I don't know.  What I do know or believe is that "they" whomever there are, are using the power of suggestion to get us to buy things we already have but a tiny bit more upgraded.  Better yet to buy things, music, shows, clothes we would not normally buy but they tap in to our likes & dislikes to get us to buy.  They could advertise until your sick of seeing it and have to see what all the fuss is about.  Highlight special guests music/actors in are in this film or on this album.  Put your favorite band on the cover of rolling stone and now you must buy the issue but it has less than four pages of material.  In the media that is ideology to me. 

Ideology in the schools to me is a little different.  Book banning for one is a tough nut to crack.  I'm not talking about certain school districts or states, I'm talking more about nationwide book banning.  One that comes to mind is Catcher & the Rye.  It's been banned for it's teenage drug use, language and some of the content involving sex.  However Flowers In The Attic has not been banned from schools or at least wasn't when I was attending and that has child abuse, rape and incest.  Who makes these decisions?  Is it the school board, parents, maybe the faculty because they refuse to teach it or don't want to add it to their curriculum.  What if it's the parents?  Could they do a permission slip like for rated R movies in the class?  The parents that don't sign, could have their child assigned another book to work on independently. The reason I feel like it is difficult because every book, or scenario is different depending on the current school year and what book it is. 

I've highlighted ideology as the power of suggestion because it is powerful.  With the right person or force, the results are endless.