And the Lord said unto Noah: “Where is the ark which I hast commanded thee to build?” And Noah said unto the Lord: “Verily I have had three carpenters off ill. The wood supplier hath let me down – yea, even though the wood hath been on order for nigh upon 12 months. What can… read more »
We recently attended a meeting of a Buddhist sect whose practice is to chant NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO repeatedly, morning and evening; if this is done, the disposition will improve and the level of daily happiness be raised. This was presented as a practical suggestion which each member of the audience could readily test for… read more »
Adherents of the eidodynamic ideologies tend to maintain that society as a whole is coming to accept their own assumptions, growing increasingly peaceful and egalitarian. Support for the view can be found, but only by careful selection, by ignoring the mass of evidence pointing in the contrary direction. When a broader scope or a longer… read more »
In IC20, p.4, under the heading “Gernuetlichkeit” there is a brief reference to Austrian wines, diethylene glycol, mountains and anti-freeze. We have it on good (epistatic) authority – the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – that Austrian wines have been adulterated with diethylene glycol, but what has this to do with antifreeze? Somewhere in… read more »
THE BIT THAT MATTERS: Some of the addresses on our mailing list go back to 1979 without our having heard from the readers. They may have moved, they may have passed on from this ideology-ridden sphere to that great realm of free and pure thought in the sky. It is time to check. If we… read more »
Ideological Commentary announces itself as “an independent journal ofz systematic ideology,” but we do not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here will be subject to continuous revision. The theory was created and largely developed by the late Harold… read more »
WHAT IS CAPITALISM? IC maintains that on the big issues the (A-)SPGB denies its own statements, thereby destroying its own case without its opponents needing to do anything. An issue which the party regards as one of the biggest is the basis of capitalism. Principle No.2 of their Declaration of Principles tells us that capitalism… read more »
In 1979 Michael Thompson issued a book entitled Rubbish Theory; the Creation and Destruction of Value (OUP). He is a brave man to use that title, but the response that immediately springs to mind is not justified; rubbish theory is far from being rubbish. It is almost routine for the mystics to stress the need… read more »
One source of opposition to systematic ideology is the theory that, in the words of Karl Marx: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.” (1) The view of s.i. as asserting that consciousness determines existence is of course a misconception –… read more »
On finding the essence of s.i. expressed, better than we have been able to put it ourselves, by somebody who has almost certainly reached it independently (and incidentally, in the course of other work), it is difficult to know whether to feel pleased or disconcerted. This is by M. I. Finley: A ruling ideology is… read more »