In the early Nineteenth Century the Polynesians were fighting among themselves and Europeans were setting up power-bases in the area, both directly and by way of Australia. In his History of the Pacific Glen Barclay describes the position as “fraught with peril for the independence and natural development of the Polynesian people.” (p.83). In saying… read more »
CAPTAIN COOK, the first European to meet them, had this to say of the Australian Aborigines: in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They… read more »
Ideologies and their Functions was published eight years ago, and since then the theory of systematic ideology has moved forward. A more up-to-date statement of it is being prepared, and the present short account of some of the main changes is intended to help bridge the inevitable gap before this appears. The book set out… read more »
In IC16, under the title “What Shall We Call It?,” we pointed out that the conception of the East as gentle and mystical, against the aggressive, grimly practical hardness of the West, is a projection of the protodynamic ideology. Among the Eastern countries most highly respected, by the left-wing intelligentsia, for their gentleness, was Ceylon,… read more »
In IC13 we pointed out that the “racial” struggle in South Africa is better understood as an ideological conflict. The same thing applies, of course, to “racial” struggles elsewhere, but not only to these. It applies, for example, to the “feminist” movement. Consider the belief that women are inclined by their gender toward gentle, peaceful,… read more »
One type of reform increasing in popularity (though the ideological structure of society makes it a statistical impossibility that it should win majority support) is that promoted by the ecological and conservationist movement, leading to (among other things) the establishment of game reserves in Africa. Do the well-intentioned reformers, and the journalists who support their… read more »
Destruction of the Amazonian ecology has provided one of the big stories of recent years. The vegetable biomass constitutes a valuable resource, and the area provides a home for tribes whose way of life would disappear with the forest. Much attention has centred around the effects of the changes upon the Yanomamo[1], and here we… read more »
The widespread publicity recently given to the atom, as a consequence of public interest in the epoch-making event of the employment of sub-atomic energy as a weapon of war, is naturally devoted only to the direct and more spectacular issues and aspects of the atom’s nature. There is, however, another aspect of the subject –… read more »
I Shall we ever win free of war? It would take more than a crystal ball to answer that question, but we can at least look at some of the indications. In the experience of civilised people today, and of their forebears over generations, war occurs in a world dominated by capitalism and the state…. read more »
ROUSSEAU believed that the feelings individuals experience for each other (which he called ‘natural commiseration’) could hardly exist between societies. But he recognised the presence of ‘a few great cosmopolitan spirits’ (grandes Ames Cosmopolites) who ‘cross the imaginary barriers that separate peoples, and who, following the example of the sovereign being which created them, embrace… read more »