Assumptions |

Alan Bula, Donald Rooum, John Rowan, Bob Black: Letters

September 1, 2012

TERMINOLOGICAL EXACTITUDE Sir, Having read Beyond Politics I agree with Zvi Lamm and Freedom that it is lucid, an invisible quality complemented by its almost stark black, white and yellow physical presence. All this, combined with the unfashionably theoretical nature of the subject, made the book a delight to read. Yet, as I neared the… read more »

George Walford: Engels Said It

September 4, 2012

This passage by Friedrich Engels goes to the roots of Marxism: The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life… is the basis of all social structure; that in every society… the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders… read more »

George Walford: Letter to an Enquirer

September 6, 2012

(This is an edited version of the letter that was sent, with alterations intended to improve its clarity.) Dear ______, Far from not having much idea what s.i. is all about, you are raising some of the crucial issues. I would like to reply more promptly but do not find these things can be handled… read more »

Harold Walsby: Development and Repression

September 8, 2012

We are now able to apply some of the results of the foregoing pages and describe in brief outline the main stages in the typical course of ideological development. In order to do this it will be convenient to choose the typical course of ontogenetic development, that is to say, the course of development pursued… read more »

Harold Walsby: The Process of Assumptions

September 8, 2012

We are now in the position where we understand: (a) that all our beliefs, opinions, knowledge, understanding etc. are concerned with what is “real” – or has independent being – and what is not real; (b) that the “attribute” or “quality” of reality – or independent being – is always conferred by the process of… read more »

Harold Walsby: Cognitive Assumptions

September 8, 2012

It will be obvious that the clarity of our conception of an ideology will largely depend upon the clarity of our conception of the leading terms we employ in its definition and description. We have said that cognitive assumptions and affective identifications are, respectively, the bricks and mortar of which an ideology is composed. Let… read more »

Harold Walsby: Definition of Ideology

September 8, 2012

Before we go on to describe the typical course of ideological development and attempt to come to some understanding of its underlying mechanisms, it will be necessary to get some clearer idea of what we mean by the word “ideology.” This will demand a discussion of two important and leading concepts which are indispensable for… read more »

Harold Walsby: Political Individualism

September 8, 2012

In contrast to the larger type of political group – which, as we have seen from our brief study, tends on the one hand to adhere to “economic individualism” and, on the other, to “political collectivism” – we now come to consider the smaller type of group: that is to say, to consider those groups… read more »

Harold Walsby: Political Collectivism

September 9, 2012

Paradoxically enough, it is to fascism that we have to turn in order to find the political movement and expression most exclusively representative of the real masses – to find, in other words, the mass movement par excellence, the supreme example of political collectivism. This curious paradox was well expressed by Goebbels when he declared… read more »

Harold Walsby: The Paradox

September 9, 2012

The more the ordinary mind takes the opposition between true and false to be fixed, the more it is accustomed to expect either agreement or contradiction with a given philosophical system, and only to see reason for the one or the other in any explanatory statement concerning such a system. It does not conceive the… read more »