In Russia after 1917 the communist ideology seemed to be taking over from all the others; it frightened the establishment even in the USA. We now see the dwarf behind the giant’s mask; in Russia as elsewhere communists have remained a small minority. As each new ideology first appears on the world scene, and as… read more »
These quotations come from Freedom, the oldest anarchist journal: The Western industrialized world has been purged of smallpox, malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy; its crop fertility has been quadrupled within this century; our urban poor rarely die of hunger. (Michael Duane 2 May 92) The war of 1939-45 convinced [the capitalists] that wars were no longer… read more »
The major ideologies have emerged in sequence, each of them more highly developed, and having fewer people identified with it, than the previous one. Each of them has persisted to support the next, giving the ideological pyramid. An inverse ratio obtains, between the level of ideological development and the number of people attaining it. The… read more »
Startling figures continue to be given for the prevalence of poverty in Britain. One recent report, from the National Children’s Home, has a quarter of our children suffering this condition, 3.5m of them severely. Consternation diminishes when one learns that ‘poverty’ here means living in a family with less than half the national average expenditure… read more »
Social science has had a bad press. The wits use it as a target: ‘Forgive me Father, for I have committed sociology’; ‘It may not be dead, but the reports of its birth have been very much exaggerated.’ Ted Lewellen calls political anthropology ‘a potpourri of unrelated theories and ethnographic analyses’ [1] John Gray declares… read more »
During the Gulf War ‘Pro-war demonstrators often outnumbered those demonstrating against it, and opinion polls were reminiscent not of the doldrums of Vietnam but of the zenith of the Second World War.’ (Robert S. Leiken, TLS 22 May p. 6) ‘the destruction of Iraqi military power was clearly viewed by most Americans as a necessary… read more »
Roger Scruton comes closer to providing a theory of the Right than do most of its supporters. Presenting a society of the Right as: ‘a spontaneous order… rich in institutions and replete with motives other than the lust for gain’ he approves its repudiation of goals, such as liberty, equality and fraternity, which derive a… read more »
This review of Beyond Politics appeared in The Bulletin of Anarchist Research No. 25, Autumn 1991; the journal then expired. A successor is in prospect, but not before early 1993. – GW Anarchists’ social classifications are famously vague. Undefined groups, such as ‘the ruling class’ or ‘the bosses’ are pitted against ‘the oppressed’ without the… read more »
Evidence for the persistence of the earlier ideologies comes from the persistence of behaviour-patterns; once established in social practice these show an endurance not always recognised. Although often changing their form of expression they continue to exercise influence even though overlaid, even repressed, by later developments; imperialism, for example, continues while national self-determination spreads, although… read more »
Sir, It is usually a mistake to join a fight when you don’t know how it started, but I would award the latest round to S. E. Parker (IC55). You say that ‘people who reject a commitment to truth cannot sensibly expect their statements to be taken seriously.’ This is on a par with the… read more »