Análisis del discurso ideológico (Traducción Ramón Alvarado)

Abstract

Ideology attempts to present the self in a positive way while casting others in the negative. This occurs through multiple discursive strategies and structures, used to advance ideological beliefs and correlative social opinions. Inherent in the process are attempts to obscure both Our negative traits and Their good ones, thus establishing a definition of civilized social life which excludes the Other. Writers in particular may create a negative view of the Other by using overstatement, by citing specific cases or events as evidence of the corruption of whole groups, or by comparing Others to known evil (eg. Hitler, the Holocaust). In the world political context, such discursive practices have afforded the USA an easy transition from the anti-Communist Cold War to the anti-Arab Hot Wars, as is evident by scrutinizing political opinion pieces. At al1 levels of their discursive structures, such articles imply, if not overtly maintain that the Enemy must be harshly dealt with in order to avoid the product of appeasement, War. Thus, the critique of terrorism, necessary in itself, is broadened to serve ideological-political purposes, namely to maintain the divide between the USA (or the West) and the Rest.