AGAINST Classism: In Fire from Heaven (Harper Collins), on the 17th Century reform movement in Dorchester, David Underdown shows, in the words of the reviewer, that ‘the campaign for moral reformation had supporters and opponents at every social level; it was not just a confrontation between the urban elite and the marginal classes.’ (TLS 26… read more »
Only the expedient ideology has shown itself universally indigenous. The others may have originated independently in more than one location, but their presence over most of the world has to be ascribed to transmission, evidenced by the spread of the activities indicating their presence. The ideology of principle / domination, bringing with it agriculture and… read more »
In recent decades physical science has declined from the position it once held. Its connections with pollution and weaponry have lowered its prestige, its representatives are less welcome to pontificate, and even the literary genre still known as science fiction has turned towards occult fantasy. Neither the profession nor its supporters have retreated willingly, and… read more »
‘NOTHING’, said Henry James, ‘is my last word about anything.’ AUSTRALIANS, it appears from a remark by Anne Chisholm, refer to their Prime Minister as the Lizard of Oz. ARISTOTLE held that virtue mattered more than formal laws. (Stephen Clark) JAMES Ferguson, reviewing a recent history of anarchism, remarks that the first reaction of an… read more »
With this issue come copies of a leaflet, entitled EXPLORING IDEOLOGY. It is hoped that readers favouring the theory will distribute these as the occasion offers – passing them to contacts, enclosing them in letters and so on. And those not liking the theory? Perhaps they will distribute them so that its absurdities and enormities… read more »
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 »
(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 »
Angles on Anarchism by George Walford with a contribution by Peter Cadogan Angles on Anarchism breaks new ground. Neither history nor polemic, it starts from the observation that the anarchist movement has settled down among the other members of the political cast; accepted, almost respectable, but of mainly theoretical importance. It asks why this has… read more »
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 »
Any reader of anthropology (or at least any reader not committed to the conventions of the profession) will have been impressed, and perhaps puzzled, by the elaborate detail, precision and complexity of the kinship and marriage practices reported. One encounters phrases like this: ‘of the general type called Iroquois or bifurcate-merging, and of the particular… read more »