The purpose of this page is to explain the specialized vocabulary of systematic ideology. And the purpose of understanding the specialized vocabulary of systematic ideology (or at least one purpose) is to write a better essay for the George Walford International Essay Prize, awarding £3,500 annually for the best essay on systematic ideology. Where no definition is offered, research remains to be done.

The Absolute Assumption: The realization occuring in infancy that we are not our environment. "... the ultimate foundation for the whole ideological fabric of our assumptions is, paradoxically enough, the primitive inborn assumption that we are, ultimately, in our fundamental nature, unlimited, unconditioned, independent, indetermined and therefore free agents - in short, the assumption that, in our basic and final nature, we are absolute. We shall consequently refer to it as then "absolute" assumption (or, alternatively, the self-deterministic or indeterministic assumption)." Harold Walsby, The Domain of Ideologies.

Absolutists: early advocates of what later became systematic ideology. An organization that existed more on paper than in real life. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Anarchism: "The anarchist movement proposes to abolish authoritarian government and the use of coercion but it does not intend, by doing this, to lower the level of orderliness. It maintains, on the contrary, that this will produce a more orderly community, that people left to themselves will regulate their own behaviour more closely, and to better effect, than any government can do. We all know, from personal experience, that rule from outside enables us to get away with a great deal; an external government simply cannot watch each of us all the time. But if, following the anarchist prescription, we accept rule from within, we shall never escape inspection. Anarchists do not in fact seek absence of government full stop, but rather the abolition of external government in order to permit the unhindered operation of internal government, individual self-government." - George Walford, Angles on Anarchism.

(Anarcho-)Socialist Party of Great Britain: "The SPGB [Socialist Party of Great Britain] advocate socialism. Most who use this term understand by it a society which may (and usually does) include a coercive state, but the SPGB intend a society without the state. 'The achievement of state power has never had any place within socialist thought. The state could never exist within socialist society' (Socialist Standard). Using words in their ordinary sense the system they propose would be more accurately known as anarcho-socialism, something anarchists can very well support." - George Walford, Are They Not Anarchists?

(A-)SPGB: Abbreviation for (Anarcho-)Socialist Party of Great Britain. Ideological Commentary

Assumptions: "An assumption is something taken for granted, and we usually distinguish between our assumptions and our knowledge, which we have not merely taken for granted but accepted upon evidence. The distinction is a useful one and for many purposes it is valid enough, but it does not stand up against close examination. [...] There is no sharp distinction between what we assume and what we know. The difference is one of degree, that which we distinguish as 'knowledge' being the assumptions which are well supported. The flimsiest passing fancy and the most solidly established principles of science, the law of gravitation itself, are both assumptions, one better supported than the other." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function. (Secondary definition: There was also a periodical published under the name Assumptions.)

Calabria Press: Publishing venture of George Walford, with "the sole function of propagating systematic ideology." Letter, GW to George Russell, 12 August 1993

Cosmos: "Our concern is with the ideology of societies, rather than with that of separate people (with macro- rather than micro-ideology), and the first observation to be made concerning any society is that it does not exist in a vacuum. It is surrounded by an environment consisting of the natural world and (if the society we are considering is anything less than the whole of the human race with all its organisations and institutions) also by other societies. In systematic ideology this environment is known as the cosmos. The word is used (like 'assumption' and 'identification') as a technical term without overtones or unstated associations, and in particular it is used without the mystical overtones it sometimes carries. The cosmos is the totality of existence, social or natural, external to the society under discussion. The cosmos is never wholly supportive; it is at best indifferent and often destructive. It imposes limitations, and the society that is to survive has to adapt its behaviour to them." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Democratic Union: early advocates of what later became systematic ideology. An organization that existed more on paper than in real life. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Domination: One of the major ideologies. "Establishment, principle, the state, conventionality, commitment, devotion, discipline, authoritarian relation, social production. Thinking achieves firm (though not sharp) dualistic classification: good/bad, subject/ruler, sacred/secular. Compliance with the rules gives predictable behaviour, enabling large societies to function. Conservative politics." - George Walford, Meet Systematic Ideology.

Eidodynamic: Those ideological groups that tend to have few advocates that favor a great deal of social change and economic control. Harold Walsby, The Domain of Ideologies.

Eidostatic: Those ideological groups that tend to have many advocates that favor social stability and economic freedom. Harold Walsby, The Domain of Ideologies.

Epidynamic: see Revolution. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Epistatic: see Domination. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Evolution: A process in which forms grow more complex. More complexity is inherently more complex, but being more complex is not inherently better. It may be wonderful that a medical procedure is complex and terrible that the paperwork to pay for that same procedural is complex. Also, more complex forms do not necessarily or even usually displace less complex forms: the less and more complex forms instead interact with each other and their environment (or cosmos) to form a system. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Expediency: One of the major ideologies. "The only universal ideology; provides a criterion for selection among morally indifferent actions. Thinking unsystematised, the spiritual world polymorphous and not firmly distinguished from the material. Nonpolitical. Only foraging communities operate entirely in this way." Meet Systematic Ideology.

Freedom: "When Mrs. Thatcher speaks enthusiastically of the freedom conservatism brings she means it. When anarchists, liberals and democrats claim their movements would bring freedom, they also believe what they say. They don't, of course, all mean the same thing, but it is not possible to show that one movement speaks truth while the others stumble in error. Each of them works for a particular sort of freedom, and each of them, the anarchist movement included, proposes to secure it by imposing limitations. Freedom and limitation come together like action and reaction; like those, they are equal, opposite - and inseparable." - George Walford, Which Freedom?

IC: abbreviation for Ideological Commentary. Ideological Commentary.

Ideological Commentary: Magazine published in sixty-four issues between 1979 and 1994 by George Walford. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Ideological Drag: "The major ideologies emerge as results of a non-genetic evolutionary process, each of them forming part of the environment to which its successor is adapted and its continued existence therefore being needed for the continued existence of that successor. This is why all the earlier major ideologies including the primal one, that of the hunter-gatherers, persist today as working parts of our social structure. Each major ideology depends upon its predecessor, the primal ideology depends upon the living animal and that in turn upon the inorganic world. Ideology is a continuation of the system of universal evolution which began with the fundamental particles of matter." - George Walford, Synopsis of Beyond Politics

Ideologist: "The term ideology, like the terms psychology and biology, is used in three distinct senses. It refers to that which is studied, the activity of studying it, and the theory resulting from that study. And as those engaged in these other studies are described as psychologists and biologists so we shall speak of the student of ideology as an ideologist." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Ideological Pyramid: "The ideological structure of contemporary society." - George Walford, Meet Systematic Ideology.

Ideological Series: "The major ideologies develop out of one another, they form a developmental series. And, as is commonly the case with such series, the earlier phases are not eliminated in the course of development, they continue to co-exist with the later ones. The clearest and best-established example of such a series is provided by the greatest of all series, the one whose main phases are the inorganic, the organic and the human. The organic has developed out of the inorganic, and the human out of the organic, but this development has not involved the elimination of the earlier phases; all three continue to co-exist. In the same way the earlier major ideologies continue to exist alongside those which have developed out of them. The continuing presence of the earlier phases of such a developmental series is not a matter of chance, and it is not something that can be significantly altered. It is a functional necessity, the later phases depending for their existence upon the continuing functional presence of the earlier ones. This is obviously so with the great series mentioned; humanity could not maintain itself in the absence of the organic and that in turn depends upon the inorganic. Similarly, as we shall see, with the major ideologies. The later ones depend upon the earlier for their survival, not only in that they logically presuppose them but also in concrete life. The groups which behave in accordance with the ideologies late in the series could not continue to live while doing this if the groups which act in accordance with the earlier ideologies were to cease doing so." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Ideology: "Our revised, more dynamic and concrete conception of an ideology may now be defined as the complete system of cognitive assumptions and affective identifications which manifest themselves in, or underlie, the thought, speech, aims, interests, ideals, ethical standards, actions - in short, in the behaviour - of an individual human being. The definition is, of course, broad and not a final one; like all definitions it will be subject to greater determination as we fill in the details and our knowledge and understanding grow more determinate." - Harold Walsby, The Domain of Ideologies. The book Ideologies and their Function by George Walford adds "or a group of human beings" to the end of the first sentence.

Ideology of Ideologies: One of the major ideologies. Recognises and accepts all of the major ideologies; has for its task resolution of the problems arising from their interaction. Meet Systematic Ideology

Identification: "We behave toward our assumptions as if they were ourselves. In Walsby's terms, we identify our assumptions with ourselves and ourselves with our assumptions." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Intellectuals: "Those who tend to rely, in matters they consider important, on their own critical thinking." Intellectuals by George Walford, from Ideological Commentary #46

Ipsden Nomenclature: Terms for the major ideologies developed in the 1970s by the Walsby Society; protostatic,epistatic, parastatic,protodynamic, epidynamic, paradynamic, and metadynamic. George Walford Memorial.

Major Ideologies: "A superficial survey of ideological behaviour produces an impression of chaos, and this has led many students of this subject to regard ideology as a perversion of the intellect, something that ought to be eliminated. [Harold] Walsby looked deeper. He saw that running through the conflict and disorder there are certain regularities, and that these indicate the presence of a small number of broad, general, enduring ideologies. Walsby himself did not distinguish these by any special term but they are now known as the major ideologies. According to Walsby they form a hierarchic system which has developed through time." [Ideology as Self-Determined] The major ideologies are Expediency, Domination, Precision, Reform, Revolution, Repudiation and the Ideology of Ideologies.

Marxism: "The significant distinction between Marxists and their opponents past or present, philosophical or political, lies not in their respective social existence but in their thinking. We may know all about the class position, the occupation, the education, family history, training, income, marital status and other features of the social existence of a group or a person and none of it will help us in the least to know whether they are or are not Marxist; that knowledge comes only when we acquire information about their beliefs. Marxism is defined by its beliefs, and when it is considered as a set of beliefs, without the presupposition that these must be an expression of the interests of a particular class, then a more adequate explanation for its presence begins to appear." - George Walford, Why Marxism?

The Mass Rationality Assumption (MRA): "When we question the mass-rationality assumption, what we are doubting is, not whether the masses are capable of developing or extending their existing made of thought (i.e. quantitatively), but whether they are capable, as a mass, of developing the qualitatively higher modes of thought - of exchanging, in short, their existing made far the independent, analytic ideological mode of the scientific intellectuals." Harold Walsby, The Domain of Ideologies.

Metadynamic: see Ideology of Ideologies. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

NIAT: "Nothing is Absolutely True." A shorthand summary of the earliest theories of Harold Walsby. Ideological Commentary 64

Paradynamic: see Repudiation. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Parastatic: see Precision. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Precision: One of the major ideologies. 'Hard' science, logic and accountancy. Ethics predominate over conformity and compliance, in religion as elsewhere. Humanism, agnosticism and freethinking begin to appear, with multiplicity, the 'billiard-ball' universe. Liberal in politics, greenism as a practical necessity. Meet Systematic Ideology.

Principle: see Domination. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Project for Systematic Ideology: The Project for Systematic Ideology existed between the Walsby Society and Ideological Commentary.

Protodynamic: see Reform. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

Protostatic: see Expediency. Another name for one of the Major Ideologies, developed by George Gook, Charles Sprague and Peter Shepherd - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function.

PSI: abbreviation for Project for Systematic Ideology. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Psychopolitics: an early name for what became systematic ideology. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Reform: One of the major ideologies. "Profound but gradual change; evolutionary science and gradualist socialism. Increasingly independent thinking leads sometimes to atheism, sometimes to mysticism, inspirational or esoteric religion: Internal interrelatedness. Holism appears, and greenism as an expression of it." Meet Systematic Ideology.

Repudiation: One of the major ideologies. "Condemns all that has gone before, demanding immediate elimination of government, classes, religion and private ownership of the means of production, resulting in free access to goods in place of the exchange of commodities. Anarchist and anarcho-socialist." Meet Systematic Ideology.

Revolution: One of the major ideologies. "Sets its own values aggressively against conventional ones. Assumes classes to be in a conflict resolvable only by revolution, violent if need be; these social relations override other influences. Religion and greenism condemned as bourgeois misdirection of the workers." Meet Systematic Ideology.

si: abbreviation for Systematic Ideology. Meet Systematic Ideology.

Socialism: "The Socialists claimed to be the movement of the working class. Since there were far more workers than capitalists (or bourgeois) Socialism should have enjoyed the support of a massive majority. This did not happen. Socialists, or at least the more thoughtful among them, were of course aware of this discrepancy, but they thought of it as a temporary situation. They argued that with increasing experience of class society, of its oppression, exploitation, warfare, misery and insecurity, the workers would come to realise where their true interests lay. They would come to support the Socialist movement. But Robert Owen issued The New View of Society in 1813. The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848 and the first volume of Das Kapital in 1867. William Morris's News from Nowhere had appeared in 1889. Generations had gone by and Socialism was still not supported by the workers as a whole, or even by a majority of them. Socialism, the movement to establish a society in which all should enjoy free access to the means of life, was still a minority movement. (And we may add that it is still a minority movement today.) Persistence and determination are admirable qualities, but they can be carried to excess. There comes a point where continued faith in a theory that is not supported by experience ceases to be rational behaviour, a point where the accumulated weight of evidence against a theory obliges us to re-examine it." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function. See also A Challenge to the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Social Science Association: early advocates of what later became systematic ideology. Publishers of a number of books and pamphlets about the theory and other topics. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

SSA: abbreviation for Social Science Association. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Systematic Ideology: "... attempts to show what ideology is, how it comes to be what it is, how it influences behavior and, finally, what we can do about it." - George Walford, Ideologies and their Function. See also New Readers Start Here.

Total Democracy: early advocates of what later became systematic ideology. An organization that existed more on paper than in real life. Trevor Blake, GWIEP.

Walsby Society: formed upon the death of Harold Walsby "with the principal object of promoting the study, discussion and development of his writings and researches." - The Walsby Society.