Precision |

Beyond Politics Reviews by The Scientific and Medical Network Newsletter

April 23, 2014

George Walford is concerned here to extend the definition and scope of ideology beyond its Marxist identification as “false consciousness” to demonstrate that ideological considerations underlie and dominate political thinking. He begins from what he calls the British political series of conservatism, liberalism, socialism, communism and anarchism, adding that the largest category lying outside these… read more »

George Walford: Trousers Versus Breeches

April 19, 2014

It was the first of the big ones, the first to shake the world and the first to be taken as a model; the Bolsheviks acted with one eye cocked back at Marat, Robespierre, the Bastille, the Vendee and the events of Thermidor. It cannot sensibly be seen as an uprising of either the working… read more »

George Walford: The Iron Law

December 23, 2013

Robert Michels’ book, Political Parties, a sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modern democracy [1], first appeared in 1911, and quickly became famous [2]. The English translation has been available since 1915 (there were also Italian, German, French and Japanese versions) and in those seventy-five years nobody, so far as I have been able… read more »

George Walford: Editorial Notes (51)

December 14, 2013

THE TWO CLASSES There are two classes in society: the privileged few who know IC and the deprived multitude who don’t. Share your good fortune: take out a subscription for a friend – or, come to that, for an enemy. Send in the name, address and a cheque for £2 and the rest will be… read more »

Ailsa Pain: Review of Beyond Politics

August 21, 2014

Review of Beyond Politics, an outline of systematic ideology. From PLAN, Journal of the Progressive League, November 1990, by Ailsa Pain. This is a readable and thought-provoking little book. While many people have come to somewhat differing conclusions as a result of their own studies and speculation, I am sure they will find interest and… read more »

John Rowan: Review of Beyond Politics

December 9, 2013

Review of Beyond Politics, an outline of systematic ideology. From SELF AND SOCIETY, European Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. XVIII No.6, Nov / Dec 1990, by John Rowan. This is a book about ideologies. An ideology is a way of seeing the world, a more or less coherent philosophy of the way things seem to… read more »

J. M. Alventosa Ferri: Beyond Ideology?

November 30, 2013

The book Beyond Politics, an outline of systematic ideology, calls attention to the analysis, observation and study of opposites. It is a dialectical book about dialectics. It is intended to explain the ideological structure of today’s society. It is in vogue nowadays to write and talk about the end of history, the end of the… read more »

George Walford: Editorial Notes (50)

November 5, 2013

‘MORE recently, historians have tended to see the [English] Revolution [of 1640] in terms less of horizontal divisions between classes and more of vertical divisions, cultural and ideological, running through all strata of society.” (John Miller, TLS 14 December) REVIEWING The New Cambridge History of India Vol IV Pt 1, by Paul R. Brass, Geoffrey… read more »

George Walford: Class Struggle (etc.)

November 2, 2013

‘CLASS’ STRUGGLE? “The curious thing was that the closer one came to [Sacco and Vanzetti’s] own stations in society the more virulent was the judgement. The two were merely ‘Reds’ to shop clerks, ‘damn Reds’ in cigar stores, and ‘God-damn Reds’ to taxi drivers.” Those who tried to avert this judicial murder included Sacco’s employer, Mussolini,… read more »

George Walford: Viable Societies Do It the Easy Way

October 5, 2013

During the past two years socialists have suffered some of their worst disappointments. From the time of Robert Owen apparent achievements bad often proven hollow, but with first the Russian Revolution and later the victory of Mao and his comrades, with one country after another coming under the rule of bodies flying the Marxist banner… read more »