Ideologies

Why do ideologies so epically fail in Invisible Man? When he joins the Brotherhood, he later discovers that he doesn’t actually fit into their scientific mold and their black and white (pun intended) guidelines for speaking to the people. Yet, he hasn’t fit in with any other ideologies either – his Grandfather traumatized him for life, and Mr. Norton’s way of giving to people didn’t exactly appeal to him either. He wasn’t even a fan of the union at the factory hospital, so much so that Brockway threw him in a machine that in turn gave him a lobotomy. Yet, why is it so hard for people to find one ideology and stick to it? This applies to people across the board, in my opinion. The only people that can really stick hard core to certain ideologies are those heavily up in the ranks of said ideology, and those that envy said people. Take for example political parties. Most people are somewhat lenient on an issue within their given party. Although some people may claim to be democrats, they may fall conservative on the issue of gun control or taxation. Yet, there are a few radicals that claim that they are extremely aligned with the party – how does this happen? Well, the affirmation of one’s identity has to also be aligned with the party, no matter how direct. That doesn’t mean that you have to be the next nominee for the Democratic Presidential Ticket to be a staunch liberal. What that means is that some part of you has to be connected. In AP US GOV we learned that nearly 60-70% of all people show a direct relationship with how they vote and how their parents vote. Obviously, their parents instilled values in them that continued throughout their lives, and this continued to affect their identities under that party ticket. Yet, theres also a statistic that those who always rebelled from their parents on other issues like religion and clothing style usually directly rebelled from their parents politically. So, whatever your identity is connected to, whether it be for or against your parents - social scientists can accurately predict whether your were a McCain or Obama fan. How does this go back to Invisible Man? Well, because the narrator never really had a staunch identity to begin with, and if he did he certainly doesn’t remember after his lobotomy, he is a blank slate, a tabula rosa if you will. So, he doesn’t really have any basis to start off his identity with, and less likely to stick keenly to one ideology. That being said, he also could have gone in the complete opposite direction. He could have found his identity within the Brotherhood so much so that he embedded his entire identity into becoming the ideology of the party, and forgo any misgivings that the party is too scientific and cold blooded. Yet, the narrator opts to go a different route – one of disattatchment and hiding in a hole.