[Vendome]

I thought the title of the article was about ideology

A rigid ideology can be restrictive not only to one’s life but the lives of those on whom they wish to force some adherents of their belief system

Ideals are a completely different matter

[sparklite2]

‘Rigid’ ideologies is your term. Not all are ideologies are rigid. In terms of use today, ideology is what the other guy suffers from.

BTW, ideology is a synonym for ideals.

[knarf]

The definition of IDEALS is the rigid concept you describe. I DID take a little liberty to mix the two, but it is not so much a rigid liberty.

Ideology is a way of thinking pertaining to a group or an individual which COULD be the result of, or at least incorporate the sense of IDEALS.

We're still FRiends, but back in the day, we had a slew of wordsmiths that helped me formulate my own thought processing.

The article actually targets the IDEALS of IDEAS (in our founding, and it's Fathers) and as I understand the question posed in the title compared to the body of the essay, I think the liberty I took is forgivable ....

It's all good, FRiend

We ARE after all, uniquely ... AMERICAN.