Ideological Commentary |

George Walford: Meet Systematic Ideology (58)

August 22, 2014

(Revision of September 1992) IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as a journal of systematic ideology (s.i.), but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here undergoes continuing revision. S.I. starts from observation of the limited success achieved alike… read more »

George Walford: Meet Systematic Ideology (59)

August 22, 2014

(Revision of September 1992) IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as a journal of systematic ideology (s.i.), but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here undergoes continuing revision. S.I. starts from observation of the limited success achieved alike… read more »

George Walford: What’s Wrong with S.I.? (59)

August 22, 2014

IC56 bore on its cover a stepped pyramid, IC57 a straight-sided one; the change indicates recovery, if not from an error then at least from an imbalance. It also illustrates the importance, when theorising, of striving to formulate assumptions, bringing them out where they can be seen and criticized. The stepped pyramid suggests that each… read more »

George Walford: Publications on Systematic Ideology (57)

August 22, 2014

THE DOMAIN OF IDEOLOGIES; a study of the origin, development and structure of ideologies. By Harold Walsby. Glasgow: Wm. McLellan in Collaboration with the Social Science Association 1947. The foundation document of the study now known as systematic ideology. Familiarity with the D of I is essential for a thorough grasp of the theory and… read more »

George Walford: Back to Work

August 22, 2014

Social Inventions is the Journal of the Institute for Social Inventions. (£15 for Institute subscription, £3 each back issue of the journal. [address]). No. 26, 1992, reprints a passage from the article Work, Who Needs It? which appeared in IC56 May 1992, and adds the following comment: If it is true as George Walford argues,… read more »

George Walford: How Say You?

August 22, 2014

Kevin Maxwell was recently arrested in an early-morning swoop by the Serious Frauds Office. Television showed him being taken to a police vehicle, his arm grasped by a constable. Since he is officially innocent until convicted, it is hard to see how this treatment can be justified. Bill Bloggs has been remanded in custody. Bill… read more »

George Walford: What’s a Dumpster?

August 22, 2014

Anarchism implies that we should all have independent facilities for expressing our own ideas, and as the zines come in we sometimes seem to be getting close to that. Disappointingly, the ideas in most anarchist journals turn out pretty much like those in most of the others, but the refreshing exceptions do turn up, one… read more »

Bob Black: Black Definitions

August 22, 2014

MORALITY? The idea in the mind of God that survived his death. NIHILISM? Confusing transvaluation with devaluation. NORTH AMERICA? The lost Continent of Moo. PARVENU? Plays racquetball, can’t spell it. PEDERASTY? Child rearing. PESSIMISTS? Have chocolate tunnel vision. POSEUR? Reads Edgar Allen Poe in the original French. PUNK? Eine kleine Nichtmusik. THE SEVENTIES? History’s 13th… read more »

George Walford: Cooperative Struggle

August 22, 2014

Struggle or cooperation? Darwin and Spencer on one side, Kropotkin on the other. Well, not quite. Although the title of his book, Mutual Aid gets read as suggesting otherwise, Kropotkin, too, recognised that life means struggle, and a struggle in which the fittest survive: No naturalist will doubt that the idea of a struggle for… read more »

George Walford: Christian Corner

August 22, 2014

George Orwell produced this deliberate distortion of which familiar Bible passage? (Answer below): Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. HYMNS REFORMED For vegetarians:… read more »