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George Walford: Meet Systematic Ideology (56)

August 8, 2014

(Revision of May 1992) IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as a journal of systematic ideology (s.i.), but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here undergoes continuing revision. Si. starts from observation of the limited success achieved alike… read more »

George Walford: Spiritualism

August 6, 2014

Spiritualism flourishes, socialism languishes. Martin Gardner reports that nearly all the first-rank American publishing houses have been knowingly issuing books of occult rubbish. [1] He quotes Ruth Brandon on the endlessness of the task of exposing their fraudulence; any success gets swamped by new publications and the mass goes wallowing on. The book trade magazine,… read more »

George Walford: Discovering Ideology

August 3, 2014

This is the full text, minimally edited, of a talk delivered to the South Place Ethical Society at their premises, Conway Hall, on 17 November 1991. The Society (familiar as South Place, or SPES), presents itself and its aims: “Founded in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement whose aim is the study and dissemination… read more »

George Walford: The Free Marketeers

June 20, 2014

Jean Baptiste Colbert, Minister in charge of finance under Louis XIV, asked the merchants what he could do for them; they added to the common stock of cliches with the reply: “Laissez-nous faire.” Or so the story goes. After generations as an unassimilated immigrant the phrase has now been naturalised as the demand for a… read more »

George Walford: Military Martyrs

April 24, 2014

Systematic ideology distinguishes between a major ideology and the ways in which it finds expression; the one ideology may appear in a variety of forms, authoritarian religion and military activities, for example, both giving shape to the ideology of principle / domination. (See “The Church Military“, IC50 p. 18). Fallen Soldiers, by George L. Mosse,… read more »

George Walford: Meet Systematic Ideology (54)

April 28, 2014

(Revision of November 1991) IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as a journal of systematic ideology (s.i.), but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here undergoes continuing revision. Si. starts from observation of the limited success achieved alike… read more »

Frank Antosen and George Walford: Reason, Friend or Enemy?

April 19, 2014

Part One: REASON AS ENEMY, by Frank Antosen. (Reprinted from Freedom, 6 April). When asked to imagine the perfect society thinkers come up with many different models, one thing seems to be common though: The perfect society is governed by reason. Even anarchists tend to subscribe to this belief. But what is reason and why… read more »

George Walford: The Construction of Reality

April 5, 2014

In his Domain of Ideologies, the foundation document of systematic ideology, Harold Walsby speaks of the work of Jean Piaget. Much of Piaget’s work has been done since Walsby wrote, and here we look at some of his later investigations. Piaget worked as a child psychologist, not an ideologist, and had doubtless never heard of… read more »

George Walford and Nicolas Walter: Correspondence

March 6, 2014

IC50 commented on the reaction, of the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie, to his announcement of his conversion. IC51 printed a letter, from Nicolas Walter, strongly criticising the comment, with a reply. He has written again, but the main part of his letter adds nothing of substance and his side of that argument has already… read more »

George Walford: Editorial Notes (52)

February 21, 2014

Russia abandons the drive towards communism, America (with a little help) drives Iran out of Kuwait, Mrs. Thatcher resigns the premiership. Great events, all of them. And now, to crown the series (spotlight, roll of drums): IC GOES QUARTERLY. This issue carries the date Summer 1991, to be followed by Autumn, Winter and Spring. The… read more »