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 »
Systematic ideology posits a range of ‘major’ ideologies, each of them (except the first, which is non-political) finding political expression through one of the main-sequence parties. In moving along the range from non-political through conservatism towards anarchism, economic collectivism strengthens and freedom of action in economics comes under heavier repression. This is not always self-evident,… read more »
Rousseau and Montaigne used primitive man to make a point about their own society, castigating the features of which they disapproved. Noting that our ‘thinkers’ of today follow the same practice, and with no greater attention to fact or balanced judgement, Nigel Barley reports on an exhibition of Red Indian work: A wooden canoe was… read more »
Systematic ideology having reached the stability of self-identification (see “What’s Wrong with S.I.?” in IC 48 [and also in this present issue, Ed.]) it would seem to be time for some market-research on “the product,” some testing in real-time situations. Hindsight applications are still not all that plentiful; we need more of them. As one… read more »
‘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 »
RATIONALISTS complain that less attention is paid to them than to the exponents of religion. Perhaps if a rationalist were to get himself crucified and buried, and rise again after three days? MARIE Sara, a Parisienne and the only top-ranking woman bullfighter, has killed fifty of the animals The Brigitte Bardot Foundation regards her as… read more »
This is not intended as propaganda either for anarchism or against it. It’s about freedom, using anarchism as a test-case because this movement is usually believed, by anarchists and others, to stand for unlimited freedom, in every sense, for everybody. One would expect anarchism to be among the biggest movements, for how can anybody reject… read more »
John Perlin A Forest Journey; The role of wood in the development of civilization. NY & London, W.W. Norton & Co. 1989. 445 pages, ISBN 0 393 02667 1. £14.95. It would hardly be going too far to say that in A Forest Journey John Perlin presents a society made of wood. Old Stone Age,… read more »
Gellner E. 1988 Plough, Sword and Book; the structure of human history. London: Collins Harvill, 288 pages £15. In this book Professor Gellner distinguishes three stages of society: first came hunting-gathering (the “hunger-gatherers” on p.33 is presumably a misprint), next based on the single discovery of food-production, and finally (so far) industrial, based on the… read more »
FEMINISTS advocating greater social influence for women on the grounds that their gender renders them inherently tender, gentle and loving (while men are naturally aggressive, domineering and hating) have a difficult case to make. They can, perhaps, argue that Myra Hindley, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Boudicca and Our Lady of Grantham were induced by… read more »