George Rebane
Readers know that I am a longtime admirer and student of Victor Davis Hanson. I have met him and spent time talking with him (here). But when he writes ‘Why Ideology is the Ancient Enemy of Civilization’, I have to pick a nit with him because there he uses a too narrow of a semantical brush to condemn a perfectly good and useful word. Most dictionaries define –
Ideology – “a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy – e.g. "the ideology of democracy". The science of ideas; the study of their origin and nature.” (dictionary.com)
Here on RR I have refined the definition somewhat to ‘A structured and communicable belief system that in its best expression is composed of tenets defendable by and malleable to reason. Ideologue – a person who is willing to communicate and defend his ideology.’
In his referenced essay VDH goes through a litany of current ideologues and historical ideologies, the practice of which devastated the populations under which they were forced to live. But limiting the definition to only those dark ideologies and their hypocritical ideologues does a disservice to the correct and comprehensive semantics for which these terms were originally fashioned, and have correctly been used over the years. Peremptorily cutting off the good parts of both is another example of amputating the language and thereby reducing its ability to efficiently convey information.
There is no need for this kind of surgery. Learning to live with such disabled terms, how then would one describe salutary and beneficial belief systems along with their adherents and practitioners?
Oh well, a word means just what you choose it to mean, and the ants are poor at describing the colony.
Bummer that this book is so expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/Social-sciences-sorcery-Stanislav-Andreski/dp/0233962263
Posted by: scenes | 12 February 2022 at 09:26 AM