In IC30 we quoted Walsby’s mention of the response – it can almost be called a mechanism – that tends to maintain conformity among the great bulk of the people in a state. He said: If… there arises a comparatively strong, critical faction… which threatens the group with dissension and disruption, the mass suggestion will increase… read more »
There is an abiding temptation to confuse change with progress, and a recent book by W. Paul James and William Tatton-Brown, Hospitals, Design and Development (London, Architectural Press) draws attention to one example of the fallacy. What we have come to think of as the old-fashioned hospital ward, with a line of beds down each… read more »
The orthodox theory of competition assumes that each trader in a given field will attempt to excel the others in the satisfactions offered, thus attracting more custom and making greater profits. The customers also benefit, receiving greater satisfactions. It is a troublesome, risky and expensive model for traders to follow, and being sensible people they… read more »
Here we continue our series of reprints of Walsby’s articles from the Socialist Leader, begun in IC27, with copy supplied by Ellis Hillman. This is from the issue of 29 April 1950; it completes the article “Dogmatic Nonsense” which appeared on 15 April 1950, reprinted in IC30. – GW Further to my previous letter, we… read more »
Louis Althusser is a French Marxist intellectual, and they don’t come any more intellectual than that. The TLS tells us his Essays on Ideology (London, Verso, 1984) is “the work of an acute intellect and contains extended passages of originality and brilliance”. Tribune: “Althusser demands patience from the reader but he rewards it with his… read more »
ETHOS AND EIDOS Since its origination by Harold Walsby systematic ideology has concentrated upon the assumptions and identifications which go to constitute ideologies. Insisting that each ideology is a whole, its form as well as its content significant (in the Foreword to the Domain of Ideologies Walsby presents this insistence upon form as a distinguishing… read more »
Revision of June 1987. 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 »
IC holds out a continuing invitation: We undertake to print any statement of up to 1,000 words carrying the approval of this party, or one of its branches. Letters from individual members will appear if they are cogent, interesting and concise, and if space permits. If you want your letter to appear unedited or not… read more »
It is becoming increasingly clear, both from the fossil record and laboratory work, that the picture of biological evolution as moving mainly by gradual and continuous change, with mutation as an occasional irregularity, has to be severely modified; sudden discontinuities play a larger part than had been allowed for. This raises a question: If neither… read more »
In the Domain of Ideologies Walsby speaks of a process by which the conformity of the great majority of members of a large group, such as a nation, is ensured: “If… there arises a comparatively strong, critical faction… which threatens the group with dissension and disruption, the mass suggestion will increase in strength, volume, intensity… read more »