by Arifpermana Ratum

Ideology is a comprehensive perception of life and reality based on an accepted value, science and philosophical doctrine about how the world, society, etc. are governed, teach how to apply, to perfect themselves and contribute to the development of society. (Platonova, Yulia: 2013)

According to Yulia Platonova, sustainable development can be said to be a contemporary ideology. Sustainable development has fulfilled the 5 criteria of an ideology scientifically:

  1. Ideology contains ideas, principles, and values.
  2. Ideology has a rational character, critical thinking, science and regulations that must be followed.
  3. Ideology connected with the acceptance of a paradigm, how to understand the world and society as a whole and themselves as members, often associated with a nobler goal, and beyond the boundaries of privacy.
  4. Ideology is reflected in human activities in accordance with the teaching of ideology
  5. Ideology can easily be a self-deception which will ultimately prevent itself from developing

Yulia Platonova also still questions whether sustainable development is a contemporary ideology. However, if we refer to one definition of ideology, according to Terry Eagleton, that idea is a process in which social life is transformed into natural reality. Sustainable Development fits very well with this definition, where sustainable development stems from man’s desire to process or produce something by following processes as natural as possible (like processes that occur in nature).

Sustainable development as an ideology can also be seen to be quite competitive with the ideology of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic and trade system where it is managed by the private sector for maximum profit (maximize profit). Sustainable development encourages the actors of capitalism to reduce the waste they produce from the maximum profit-seeking process. Surely thinkers of capitalism will not heed the ideology of sustainable development because they feel that they will not get high profits if they follow the ideology of sustainability. However, in 2017, Ellen MacArthur in her website www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org, said that it is very possible that business people and capitalism make more profit if they direct their business sector towards sustainable development, namely by using the concept of circular economy theory. This concept of circularity towards sustainable development goals is a hot potatoes, which was discussed by EU on governmental levels.