The Ideology of Optimism and Social History: Hero and Death

Abstract

The article explores the liberal foundations of the political ideology of optimism. Drawing on a critical analysis of modern concepts of ideology and the crisis of its liberal forms, including the works of I. Vallerstain, K. Man-heim, R. Aron, M. Foucault, A. Rand, and others, the article proposes examining ideology in terms of its psycho-logical impact on the “pain points” of an individual as a mortal being. The article demonstrates the disad-vantages of sacrificial, “archaic heroic optimism”, which was also characteristic of communist ideology. The religious attitude that provides a person with optimism to overcome the fear of death-or, more precisely, the fear of knowing about death-may be replaced by a new worldview system that is as successful as religion. In this sense, any state ideology can become an ideology of optimism, that is, a worldview that looks beyond the boundaries of individual earthly life.