One of these illustrations shows the masses constituting the state, personified in the figure of the monarch. The other shows them constituting a power which smashes the state, personified in a member of what is commonly called the ruling class. They are separated by three centuries which have seen the introduction of universal franchise, general… read more »
IC35 included (on page 2) a note suggesting that Thatcherism stands closer to old-fashioned conservatism than is sometimes thought, its greater sharpness arising from the need (from the Tories’ viewpoint) not merely to maintain an existing condition but to work back to one that has been largely lost. Christopher Thorne, reviewing a batch of books… read more »
Continuing our series of reprints from the SOCIALIST LEADER, from copy supplied by Ellis Hillman, this article comes from the issue of 1st March, 1952. It shows the warm response Walsby was capable of, a side of his personality seldom finding a chance to appear in his more theoretical work, and his evident interest in… read more »
The vast mass of non-political people set the limits within which society is able to operate, anything they refuse to accept being “politically impossible.” Effective prohibition of alcohol is one example of this, effective prohibition of abortion another. The people rarely try to argue a case for drinking or abortion, they just carry on with… read more »
Against the assertion of the left, that it is primarily the suppliers who manipulate the consumers, we have long been pointing out how the pursuit of profit obliges capitalists to comply with the demands of their customers. Politicians also, far from being able to manipulate their constituents, have to go where the votes are. Mrs…. read more »
Dear [redacted] Your response to my letter rather takes me aback; I’m just not accustomed to having the ideas picked up and returned immediately in phrasing that improves on my own efforts. Speaking of those I called non- politicals you say: Most people, it turns out, favour neither control nor freedom in either intellectual or… read more »
By the mid-1840s Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had begun to use the term “ideology” in something approaching its modern meaning. They showed themselves aware of having broken through into a new area of understanding and encountered something other than the familiar operations of thought, but did not recognise the full significance of their own… read more »
WHATEVER happened to the Community Charge? Our choice now seems to lie between a government determined to introduce a poll tax and an opposition half-heartedly resisting it. The difference between them rests on political-ideological rather than economic grounds; many supporters of the government know the new tax will cost them more than their rates and… read more »
Revision of March 1989 IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY is devoted to the development and exposition of systematic ideology, a theory originated and largely developed by the late Harold Walsby. We do not claim final or exhaustive understanding of it; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the partial account given here… read more »
In the course of reading one accumulates notes of insights and phrases, to be written up in a future that does not always arrive. Some seem worth recording, if only because others may perhaps find them useful or provocative. In writing of Mussolini’s lieutenant Italo Balbo, Claudio Segre stresses the extent to which his prominence… read more »