The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > When idealists give way to ideology > Comments

When idealists give way to ideology : Comments

By Mal Fletcher, published 18/9/2015

Idealists in the population will often project their visions of a better future onto ideologues, whose intransigence on issues is often mistaken for a sign of prescience.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. All
The Despotic House Of Saud——The Plantagenets Of The Oil Dunes

by Consortium News • September 6, 2015

De Sportif Oust de Sauge -- Plantagenets L'Anjou ?
What are those tall towers at Mecca?
Posted by nicknamenick, Friday, 18 September 2015 2:13:30 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Here's an idealistic speech for you:

"...I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.

Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles--which can only destroy and never create--is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task. ..."

What hippy-dippy peacnic said this?
JFK, June 10 1963, less than a year after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BWC7I4C9QUmLG9J6I8oy8w.aspx
Posted by BJelly, Friday, 18 September 2015 6:14:03 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Good article Mal Fletcher. Could I add to your knowledge?

An unknown proportion of people in every society have a deep psychological need to think totally in terms of what is absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. Psychologists categorise such people as having "absolutist" mindsets. For an "absolutist" there can be no shades of grey. Moral quandaries or moral priorities are concepts they decline to even think about. Moral values must be carved in stone, unquestionable, and unchanging. Such people are attracted to absolutist movements of both the Left and Right.

Environmental fundamentalists, religious fundamentalists, economic fundamentalists, human rights fundamentalists, pacifist fundamentalists, racism and anti racism fundamentalists, health fundamentalists, temperance fundamentalists, and animal rights fundamentalists, may differ in their ideologies, but not in their mindsets. For such people, their way of thinking is totally correct and must not be questioned. They all believe that people who oppose their ideologies are unspeakably evil.

Such people demand simple, single answer solutions to the most complex of problems. Usually, this means that they demand that everybody else in society must adopt their ideology, because it is the only right one. Oddly, such people are often seen as leaders, because they are totally committed to their causes. They often take over entire political and religious movements, because their unshakable zeal in their own ideologies wears down those who take moderate positions. Eventually, they replace the moderates and put their own disciples into subordinate positions.

You can show a religious fundamentalist truckloads of fossils and they will still refuse to believe in evolution. You can show animal rights activists the effects of feral animals upon native flora and fauna, and they will still refuse to consider that feral animals should be killed. You can point out to human rights activists that human rights conflict with each other, and they don't want to know. You can prove to a fundamentalist greenie that their policies will create economic ruin, and they don't care. You can point out to a committed Socialist that socialism failed everywhere it was tried, and they will still say that it works.
Posted by LEGO, Saturday, 19 September 2015 7:13:45 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hi Nick Name

"The Despotic House Of Saud——The Plantagenets Of The Oil Dunes"

It is written that Princess Lara de Bingle was sailing on Syd Harb blue - when promptly captured by corporate pirates of King Malware de Turncoat.

Such were the pleasures of her highly toned bod that she crushed the forces of Lord Mayor Luzy thereby rising on the Arch-Bishopric of Pell the Bloody Awful.
_____________________________________________________________

Hi LEGO

Very true about

"You can point out to human rights activists that human rights conflict with each other, and they don't want to know. You can prove to a fundamentalist greenie that their policies will create economic ruin, and they don't care."

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Saturday, 19 September 2015 10:58:56 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Pete,

SBS are showing Plantagenets at 5:30 today.

From what I've heard, it makes the events of Canberra look very tame!
Posted by Aidan, Saturday, 19 September 2015 4:55:56 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Thanks Aidan

They can be hard to get on with - bringing hot pokers and battle-axes.

Cheers

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Saturday, 19 September 2015 6:00:01 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy