It is interesting to me that ideologues, at least one type of them, give ideology a bad name. Think about it. Ideology has several meanings, all of which are positive. It can mean visionary theorizing, or a systematic body of concepts about human life or culture, or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture, or, finally, the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program. None of these suggest anything bad or nefarious.
An ideologue, on the other hand, is an impractical idealist or someone who is a blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology. In other words, ideologues are people who are at best naive, and at worst arrogantly uncompromising, accurately described as “my way or no way people.”
Despite being naive, I think there is a place for impractical idealists in our world. They often remind us of dreams we once had ourselves, of possibilities we abandoned too quickly, of the good that lies within us that gets pushed down by pragmatism or difficult circumstances. Impractical idealists are the poets and artists of every age, the writers and philosophers that call us to think outside the box and not limit ourselves to the known. They are the kind of ideologues the world needs to prevent itself from falling into abject cynicism and debilitating fear. Once in a while they see something that can be real no one else sees until the idealist reveals it.
The second type of ideologue, however, is a different species altogether. Sadly they outnumber the impractical idealists by a wide margin, especially when it comes to politics and religion, a curious pairing if you think about it. More than a few Americans hold political and religious views that are blindly partisan or demonstrate an adherence to those views that make it impossible to listen to any other. If they were leaders of an army going into battle their orders would be to take no prisoners, kill or be killed, conquer or be conquered, win or lose, but nothing in-between. Ideologues take ideology to a level that turns it into a weapon rather than a point of view. Everything is measured by acceptance or rejection of their position on a subject.
Most people don’t become ideologues of either kind, though I personally wish we had more impractical idealists around. But I confess it is the fact that more become ideologues of the second kind that intrigues me. As I have thought about it, one of the reasons I think they do is because they cannot stand ambiguity. They see the world as black or white, right or wrong, up or down, good or bad, without any blurring of the line between sides. So their position on any issue is the only right one. This is because ambiguity plays with their mind and confuses them, so much so that they have come up with another name for it. They call ambiguity relativism, which they define as believing there is no real truth, that anything goes, that one thing is as good as another, all of which lead people into compromising principles that should not be changed. This is why when it comes to politics, their party is right and all others are wrong. When it comes to religion, their beliefs are the only true ones.
Because of the nature of who the second type of ideologues are, they cannot be moved from where they stand. Neither rhyme nor reason can change their mind on anything. Once they become an ideologue there is an immovable boulder covering the entrance to their mind. Their motto is found in the words of an old hymn: “I will not be, I will not be moved.”
The only thing we can do about the proliferation of ideologues is to prevent it from happening. Many factors may go into that, not least is the home environment. A home where ideas are thrown about freely, where discussion is open, even if passionate, where traditions can be challenged and new things tried, children are less likely to grow up to be ideologues. But that is not enough. There also has to be a life-long commitment to learning. For the one thing this commitment gives us is an awareess of how much we don’t know. There is nothing quite as humbling as that, which, if you think about it, may be the most potent antidote to becoming an ideologue there is.
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Hmmm. No replies yet. Perhaps because this topic has been touched on before here. However I like this commentary, Jan , and I identify with it because of my own experience with it in a home environment. I lean toward the first type and my former wife the second type of idealogue. My son has become the second type, in spades! This is why we’re estranged; something I’ve shared here before. The point you raise about rearing children in an environment that prevents this extreme is what I appreciate you expressing most, and thought was the case for my son and daughter. I thought there was some idealogical balance to ideas expressed and situations dealt with over time in our house. My daughter is quite the opposite of my son and is far more open minded than he. He even seemed to hold more balance values in his youth than his adulthood. We are really talking about nature vs. nurture here. I think it is critically important to nuture towards balance in life; balance is all around us and clearly visible in nature. However, because environment is so highly influencial on every organism efforts by everyone to cultivate balance in the community at large is every bit as important as the home. My son became more hardened in his ideology by conservative theology and again when he married into a highly conservative family. In all of us, environment, especially extreme environment, triggers even latent organc propensities! This is the battle going on now in this country. The black and white idealogues are feeling threatened and fighting tooth and nail to erradicate the ambiguity, instill environment they can understand. I don’t think it can survive ultimately because it’s “unnatural”. But, movement toward balance and brotherhood is also an evolutionary process; time consumming, requiring patience and persistence. With that in mind, do keep refreshing us all with this topic toward a more “connected” future. Be well.
Loved reading this thank yyou
Thanks, Markus.