Anarchism |

George Walford: Ideology in the Reviews (56)

August 21, 2014

MICHAEL Gossop reviews Solomon H. Snyder: Brainstorming; The science and politics of opiate research. (Harvard UP) and Ronald K.Siegel: Intoxication; Life in pursuit of artificial paradise (Simon & Schuster). Both authors point out how drug control strategies can do more harm than good. Snyder describes how the American campaign to eradicate the use of opium… read more »

George Walford: Editorial Notes (56)

August 17, 2014

UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts that population will rise from five billion to eight billion by A.D.2020. IS BORIS GOOD ENOUGH? Under this headline Norman Stone recalls that when the tanks stormed into Moscow they stopped at red traffic lights. Memory adds that when the Parisian Communards wanted to open the bank vaults… read more »

George Walford: The Ideological Pyramid (56)

August 16, 2014

The major ideologies, outlined on the facing page, have developed through history. Each of them provides the conditions which permit the next one to emerge, and each of them has fewer people attached to it than the one before. The diagram below indicates the outcome, the ideological structure of contemporary society, but the model needs… read more »

George Walford: Meet Systematic Ideology (56)

August 8, 2014

(Revision of May 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. Si. starts from observation of the limited success achieved alike… read more »

George Walford: Beyond Politics (55)

August 8, 2014

BEYOND POLITICS An outline of systematic ideology by George Walford BEYOND POLITICS shows that the influence of ideology extends beyond political parties and movements. In all our purposeful activities, whether playing with the children, practising a trade or profession, fighting a war, cooking, shopping or fox-hunting, we follow a pattern set by one of the… read more »

George Walford: The (Anarcho- ) Socialist Parties (55)

August 8, 2014

Readers will recall that the (A-)SPGB last year divided themselves, after a long dispute, into two parties, one based in Head Office, SW4 (this retains control of the premises, the Socialist Standard and most of the funds), the other in N12. Both retain the original Object and Declaration of Principles. As one result of the… read more »

George Walford: Doing the Splits (55)

August 7, 2014

IC has been running items under this heading, drawing attention to the increase in divisiveness towards the eidodynamic end of the ideological range. The first two of the present selection are particularly fine; one gives vigorous expression to what happens, the other shows its practical importance: “Why is it that right-wing bastards always stand shoulder… read more »

Dan Wilson, S. E. Parker, Donald Rooum: Letters

August 5, 2014

HYPERSCEPTICISM Sir, I wonder if you realise that your extension of systematic ideology to the business of everyday living [1] – the ideologies surrounding a flying brick – marries up with hyperscepticism when it is applied to existence itself? In hyperscepticism the viewer does not accept any proposition as ultimately true. Resonance: NIAT. There is… read more »

George Walford: William Morris

August 17, 2014

In Freedom of 14 December reviews of two books, one by William Morris and the other about him, occupy a full page. Thoughtful, informed and informative though they are, both of them display one surprising omission. Look at these quotations: “RICH SCUM . . Thought – terminate ’em!’ (Class War); “the rich will always save… read more »

George Walford: Ideology in the Reviews (55)

July 28, 2014

PETER Marshall has produced Demanding the Impossible; a history of anarchism. (Harper-Collins). The free-market movement known as anarcho-capitalism he rejects as “merely a free-for-all in which only the rich and the cunning would benefit. Evidently he agrees with IC that anarchism stands not only for freedom but also for limitation; a free-for-all is not acceptable…. read more »