Think On: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” WILLIAM PITT, Speech in House of Commons, 1783
Tumbleweed has written before about ideology versus principles. Some folks took issue with my comparison of ideology resting on a foundation of emotional sand versus principles resting on the bedrock of moral rules. Folks are entitled to their opinions, but let Tumbleweed suggest that ideologies, as described so very effectively by clinical behavioral psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson, are “simple ideas, disguised as science or philosophy, that purport to explain the complexity of the world and offer remedies that will perfect it.”
Tumbleweed suggests that ideologies are mere substitutes for true knowledge and invariably dangerous, as a simple-minded, know-it-all approach – such as utopianism – cannot be a match for the complexity of our real-world existence. The very word “ideology” has an 18th century French origin attributed to A.L.C. Destutt de Tracy and was to be used to designate the science of ideas. While it was originally a serious philosophical term, Napoleon Bonaparte borrowed it, used it derisively, and relegated it to the trash heap of now being defined as a systematic body of concepts especially as ascribed to particular groups or political parties. Tumbleweed has suggested that ideology not grounded in solid moral principles is downright dangerous. In today’s morally relativistic world, the underlying morality of an ideology is critically important.
For example, there is a growing demographic in U.S. culture that has adopted socialism as its ideological mantra. These folks are generally labelled as far left progressives, most often of the “new” Democratic Party persuasion. Most have learned their socialism from media, academics, and political zealots as opposed to any intellectual debate in the crucible of ideas and experience. No where in history has socialism succeeded as a form of government. Certainly not Sweden for those not paying attention to that nation’s gross failures. Socialism either regresses to a dependent culture with widespread socio-economic repression in which capitalistic elements are cherry-picked by the ruling class of utopians in a desperate effort to try to salvage the society or they take the next step to totalitarianism, as in Fascism, Communism, or Nazism. Of course, the Communists have found the most expeditious way to control their utopian experiment is simply to kill dissenters…like more than 110 million in the past century alone. Thank you, Karl Marx. Oh, and the Communists are very much alive and well in the United States…some disguised as socialists. Indeed, an ideology can be a dangerous, especially when grounded in faulty moral principles. Tumbleweed argues that socialism seriously threatens our republic. The sound moral principles embedded in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are vastly superior to any socialistic ideology, yet they are being challenged by mostly what Vladimir Lenin called useful idiots.
Tumbleweed believes it’s important to fight against evil. Evil is an aggressive, pervasive, often subtle artifice that must be fought and defeated. The alternative is to live in mediocrity or worse. It boils down to a natural human tendency to treasure liberty, the opportunity to carve out our own opportunities unencumbered by some ponderous metastasizing supposedly-utopian government’s idea of how we should live every facet of our lives. So, Tumbleweed has chosen the “red pill” (recall The Matrix) and is fighting the evils of relativism, nihilism, and utopianism. Just sayin’.