on the folly of labelism

if the marxist hat fits...

Published on April 28, 2004 By kingbee In Politics

"Balance, diversity, creativity - these are the elements of Republican equation. Republicans agree, Republicans agree heartily to disagree on many, many of their applications, but we have never disagreed on the basic fundamental issues of why you and I are Republicans.

This is a party, this Republican Party, a Party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists.

Back in 1858 Abraham Lincoln said this of the Republican party - and I quote him, because he probably could have said it during the last week or so: "It was composed of strained, discordant, and even hostile elements" in 1858. Yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective: To arrest the progress of slavery, and place it in the course of ultimate extinction.

Today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad is great enough to challenge all our resources and to require all our strength. Anyone who joins us in all sincerity, we welcome. Those who do not care for our cause, we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. And let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels"

thus spake senator goldwater while accepting his party's nomination as candidate for the presidency in 1964.

should the esteemed senator from the great state of arizona be able to monitor today's america, he--and lincoln as well--are very likely spinning in their graves. this year's presidential contest is about to commence in an america experiencing a new rebirth of polarization rather than freedom. conceived in blind ambition and dedicated to the proposition that one can fool all of the people all of the time with the right packaging, delivery is, by and large, being attended by cynics claiming to be the ideological heirs of both great men..

when the best argument one can muster against a candidate who has served his country with distinction during time of war is merely a single word sufficed by 'ism', it would seem reasonable to conclude there is fuzzy and futile unthinking afoot.

when one finds oneself categorizing articles of apparel in ideological terms id say its a reasonable indication theres no thinking of any type going on at all.

Comments

David St Hubbins

on Apr 28, 2004

Ideology is a shortcut for thinking. I dislike labels immensely. The words 'liberal' and 'conservative' have as much meaning as 'blood' and 'crip' to me. It's no longer an ideology, it's a team. Red vs. Blue.

Saint Ying

on Apr 29, 2004

Well the difference I think, is how the label is used. Is the label something that has been rationally developed and is an end in an of itself, or is the label an 'image', developed falaciously and used as a means to bypass something intellectually. I think alot of conservatives today are guilty of labeling people so that they can 'diminish' them and avoid dealing with what they have to say. Who would pay attention, afterall, to a communist pinko who hates America? This has become something of an epidemic in our society, and alot of people have seemingly forgotten how to think. They get way over their head with images and ideas that they hear in the media and start spinning and rehashing them as if they were their own, without having gone through the process of developing or evaluating them. People are thinking about the really big issues that the media defines as 'the national conversation', and they're jumping up to the plate to get a piece of the pie without really understanding the issues personally and intelligably. Being an informed citizen in the information age is a tougher responsibility than it used to be. Access to so much information doesn't make us more intelligent, but rather provides a convoluted and unreliable representation of reality, and labels, brands, and other shortcuts to thinking seem to float to the surface as life-rafts for those for whom the information would otherwise make no sense. These abstractions are in many respects morally purified and ideologically stable bubbles, completely self contained and self apparent, and extremely resonant on an emotional level, but quite removed from the complex mishmash of order and disorder that characterize the observed world. Not being rooted and defined by their place in observed phenomenon, they can be applied liberally, dogmatically, and without strong logical justification. And most importantly, they cannot be destroyed logically, because they consist not of logic but of air.

kingbee

on Apr 29, 2004

ideology is, more accurately, shortcut for NOT thinking is it not?

otherwise amen and amen

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