Viktor Pelevin’s Homo Zapiens and "Ideology Pepsi".
Viktor Pelevin in his novel “Homo Zapiens” depicts a Russian society in the 1990’s under a magic spell of a new type of ideology - “Ideology Pepsi” - that quickly and effectively substituted the communist ideology and produced a new myth of reality. However, unlike the traditional concept of ideology that subjugates and controls its populace through coercive practices, this new ideology accesses people on a subliminal level, focusing on their libidinal desires hidden deeply in the unconscious. Through a perpetual bombardment of commercials, the new ideology promotes mindless consumerism and creates a new myth of eternity that dupes people into thinking that by buying a certain product they will somehow attain the myth of eternity and ultimate freedom associated with it. Thus, people live in a simulated reality that eventually leads to the simulacrum of reality - a non-existent world, a copy that has no original and yet appears to be real. In contrast to a traditional notion of ideology with a powerful ruling class at the top, this new ideology presents a different structure that has no central apparatus of power. Indeed, it creates and recreates itself through a self-perpetuating and self-generating cycle materialized through media and TV: “localized centres” that control and manipulate its citizens in the comfort of their own sofa.