Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 3
“Ideology is strong exactly because it is no longer experienced as ideology…we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
- Slavoj Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes
Michael Dax Iacovone
One time when I was training for a marathon, I had to do a 10mile run, so I left my house and stretched on my front steps, and it smelled like shit. I ran through the park, and along the river, and I stopped to drink some water, and I noticed that it smelled like shit again. Like actual shit. I figured that it was the river, which was particularly stagnant that time of year, so I changed my course and ran through the city. But every time I stopped at an intersection, it smelled like shit. So I finished my run and on my front steps I stopped to stretch one last time, and I noticed it smelled like shit again. How could the entire city smell like shit? So I went to take my shoes off and noticed that I had stepped in shit. Actual shit. And it was all smushed into all the crevices of my running shoes. That’s what it’s like when you are living by an ideology and you don’t realize it. You can’t outrun the smell of shit.
The act of adhering to an ideology, when done consciously, is a strict lifestyle that dictates your actions. It can be confining and constricting, if there are conflicts within your decisions. It’s kind of like being a vegetarian. You’re actions are limited by your ideology, and to be a vegetarian you need to adhere to that decision completely. Conversely, living and operating within an ideology is commonplace with most people without being confined by tacitly articulating or even fully acknowledging that ideology to one’s self. For instance, if you just don’t like to eat meat, and avoid doing so, you’re essentially a vegetarian without the burden of the relentless rules, and therefore free to go about your business and eat whatever you choose.
Volume 1, Issue 3
“Ideology is strong exactly because it is no longer experienced as ideology…we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
- Slavoj Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes
Michael Dax Iacovone
One time when I was training for a marathon, I had to do a 10mile run, so I left my house and stretched on my front steps, and it smelled like shit. I ran through the park, and along the river, and I stopped to drink some water, and I noticed that it smelled like shit again. Like actual shit. I figured that it was the river, which was particularly stagnant that time of year, so I changed my course and ran through the city. But every time I stopped at an intersection, it smelled like shit. So I finished my run and on my front steps I stopped to stretch one last time, and I noticed it smelled like shit again. How could the entire city smell like shit? So I went to take my shoes off and noticed that I had stepped in shit. Actual shit. And it was all smushed into all the crevices of my running shoes. That’s what it’s like when you are living by an ideology and you don’t realize it. You can’t outrun the smell of shit.
The act of adhering to an ideology, when done consciously, is a strict lifestyle that dictates your actions. It can be confining and constricting, if there are conflicts within your decisions. It’s kind of like being a vegetarian. You’re actions are limited by your ideology, and to be a vegetarian you need to adhere to that decision completely. Conversely, living and operating within an ideology is commonplace with most people without being confined by tacitly articulating or even fully acknowledging that ideology to one’s self. For instance, if you just don’t like to eat meat, and avoid doing so, you’re essentially a vegetarian without the burden of the relentless rules, and therefore free to go about your business and eat whatever you choose.
