Any reader who accepts – even if only provisionally – the theories brought forward in the preceding pages, and sets out to test them against his own observations, will quickly encounter gross discrepancies. The protostatics present no great problem; it will be found that their behaviour does, if not in all details then at least… read more »
In the economic field the situation of the ideologies, as regards collectivism and individualism, is the reverse of that in the political field. The eidostatics exhibit economic individualism and the eidodynamics exhibit economic collectivism. It is commonly accepted that the transition, which is occurring in Britain and other western democracies (and which has already occurred… read more »
The ideologist does not dispute the general opinion that the ideas of the Right are different from those of the Left, but he does add something to it. Right and Left, eidostatics and eidodynamics, not only have different ideas, they also have different ways of thinking. As Walsby phrases it, they differ not only in… read more »
“The theory of systematic ideology indicates that we have to accept the range of major ideologies, and the groups identified with them, as enduring features of our society. This points to the conclusion that an adequate political structure would be one in accordance with the ideological structure, one which recognised that the major ideologies, and… read more »
When we turn to consider the respective identifications of the two main ideological classes with the non-social world (what Walsby terms their cosmic situations), we find a reversal of the identifications which they respectively exhibit with existing society. The eidostatics, (positively identified with existing society), are negatively identified with the non-social world, and the eidodynamics,… read more »
The environment in which we live can be divided in many ways. For the ideologist one significant division is between the social group and the rest of the environment. The two main ideological classes, eidostatic and eidodynamic, each display a characteristic pair of identifications, one with the social group (Walsby terms this the group situation),… read more »
The order in which the major ideologies have been presented, running from protostatic to metadynamic, is not an arbitrary one. This is the order in which they succeed each other in the development of the individual. We all begin life as protostatics, some remain in this phase and others become epistatics. Some remain in this… read more »
Each of us has his own unique ideology, his system of identifications and assumptions, which is not the same as that of anybody else. Also, some of the particular assumptions within each unique set are peculiar to the person concerned. Each of us has, for example, assumptions concerning his own body which he shares with… read more »
An ideology is usually thought of rather vaguely, as a person’s system of ideas, or set of beliefs or values, or his general outlook, or mental attitude. We are now able to define it more sharply, as the set of assumptions with which he is identified. Or, in Walsby’s more extended definition: (An ideology is)… read more »
The twin foundation stones of ideological theory are the associated concepts of assumption and identification. Assumption: Ideology is one of the studies concerned with thought, and it is general practice, among those who study thinking, to distinguish between the true and the false. It is, indeed, often taken for granted that the establishment of this… read more »