Full Idea
The ideal in an ideology may be set down in a sacred text, exemplified in an exceptional life, dictated by laws of history, sociology, or psychology, located in a past uncorrupted idyllic past, or in a future Utopia of perfected human nature, and so on.
Gist of Idea
The ideal of an ideology is embodied in a text, a role model, a law of history, a dream of the past...
Source
John Kekes (The Human Condition [2010], 06.4)
Book Reference
Kekes,John: 'The Human Condition' [OUP 2010], p.131
A Reaction
A bit grumpy, but a fair observation about an awful lot of slightly mad social endeavours.