Ideological Commentary |

George Walford: The Corporation Hunter

August 25, 2012

Supermarkets displace corner shops, multi-nationals squeeze out local enterprises, mergers and takeovers reduce the number of independents. The great corporations are absorbing industrial and commercial life, and in doing this they stifle enterprise and suppress initiative. Head Office issues the orders while those below have only to carry them out. People who once worked and… read more »

George Walford: Ideology in Anthropology

August 25, 2012

THE new series, One World Archaeology, presents the proceedings of the World Archaeological Congress held at Southampton (UK) in 1986. It has provided Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Anthropology at Rutgers, with the occasion for an article raising several issues of interest to IC. [1] All quotations here come from that source. Professor Fox… read more »

Harold Walsby: Science and Utopia

August 25, 2012

Harold Walsby, founder of the study now known as systematic ideology, began his investigations in 1938-39, first using the title ‘psychopolitics.’ The Social Science Association (October 1944 to 18 January 1956) joined with Messrs. William MacLellan to produce his only book, The Domain of Ideologies. It also issued a number of pamphlets intended for general… read more »

George Walford: Notes & Quotes (62)

August 25, 2012

NIAT: ‘A reduction in road accidents is a good thing’ might seem to be an absolute truth, but no. Organs for transplants grow increasingly scarce, and surgeons blame the declining number of traffic victims. (Observer 19 Sept). NIAT: ‘Nothing ought to be compulsory reading.’ (Alan Ryan TLS May 21, 9) NIAT: Physical quantities like energy… read more »

George Walford: Editorial (62)

August 26, 2012

‘In organic change, that which changes also abides, and the new is not merely other than the old, but the old transmuted – the same yet not the mere same. Progress in short is always the unity of differentiation and integration.’ This issue of IC centres around a continuing theme of systematic ideology: that in… read more »

George Walford: Ideology in the Reviews (61)

August 26, 2012

NOTING the absurdity of the belief ‘that it is a sign of economic and spiritual vitality to have lots of people digging for coal, even if it means digging deeper than anywhere else,’ Robert Skidelsky ascribes its persistence to the legacy of Soviet economics and idealization of the working class by left-wing academics. (Review of… read more »

George Walford: Expediency

August 26, 2012

In the late 16th Century John Hawkins, one of those rumbustious Elizabethan sea-captains, commanded a trading fleet intending to buy slaves from African rulers and sell them in the New World. The Spaniards, having been granted exclusive rights in America by the Pope, disapproved of this practice but Hawkins relied on his own ingenuity, and… read more »

George Walford: Poverty

August 26, 2012

We hear little of the virtual disappearance of pauperism from the advanced countries, but much about the spread of poverty. Poverty is a tricky concept, for it does not have to mean a shortage of what is needed for life, even for healthy, enjoyable life. It means, in one of the more widely-accepted definitions, an… read more »

George Walford: The Napolionics of Marxism

August 27, 2012

The socialist movement (the phrase to include communists and most anarchists) claims to represent the interests of the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the interests of the majority. On this ground it expects to receive mass support, but over a century and more this has not been forthcoming. There seems to be something wrong somewhere;… read more »

George Walford, Cliff Ashcroft, Alan Bula: Letters

August 21, 2014

Sir, I was at the Anarchist Forum on the 4th June to hear George Walford speak on From Anarchism to Ideology. It was a stimulating and well-delivered talk and I’d like to thank him again for presenting it. I find it difficult to make immediate, off-the-cuff criticisms or observations so excuse me if I take… read more »