Great article. It sparked a lot of thoughts in me most of which I realized are entirely anodyne. But I'll share a couple anyway.
I think of ideology and religion as essentially the same. Both dangerous unless one harbors a healthy doubt. If you have to imprison, threaten or kill people better rethink it.
I think of Marxism as an ideology and capitalism as an observation of how people behave. Since people behave badly it needs to be regulated
I think the more narrowly one defines a problem e.g. teaching reading the more likely on is to get a good result.
I'm reading Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" She defines Ideology as:
“[S]ystems based upon a single opinion that proves strong enough to attract and persuade a majority of people and broad enough to lead them through the various experiences and situations of an average modern life. For an ideology differs from a simple opinion in that it claims to possess either the key to history, or solution to all the riddles of the universe, or intimate knowledge of hidden universal laws which are supposed to rule nature and man.”
Great article. It sparked a lot of thoughts in me most of which I realized are entirely anodyne. But I'll share a couple anyway.
I think of ideology and religion as essentially the same. Both dangerous unless one harbors a healthy doubt. If you have to imprison, threaten or kill people better rethink it.
I think of Marxism as an ideology and capitalism as an observation of how people behave. Since people behave badly it needs to be regulated
I think the more narrowly one defines a problem e.g. teaching reading the more likely on is to get a good result.
I'm reading Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" She defines Ideology as:
“[S]ystems based upon a single opinion that proves strong enough to attract and persuade a majority of people and broad enough to lead them through the various experiences and situations of an average modern life. For an ideology differs from a simple opinion in that it claims to possess either the key to history, or solution to all the riddles of the universe, or intimate knowledge of hidden universal laws which are supposed to rule nature and man.”
Keep up the good work.
Ian
Thanks for replying. Yes, ideologies are very similar to religions to the point where to me a religion is an ideology!
Maybe I need to check out that Arendt book! You are doing some serious reading!