George Walford: Beyond Politics (55)

BEYOND POLITICS
An outline of systematic ideology

by George Walford

BEYOND POLITICS shows that the influence of ideology extends beyond political parties and movements. In all our purposeful activities, whether playing with the children, practising a trade or profession, fighting a war, cooking, shopping or fox-hunting, we follow a pattern set by one of the major ideologies.

These do not stand as it were side-by-side, and they do not simply conflict with each other; they form a system. Hence the name of the approach used in BEYOND POLITICS: systematic ideology.

“The clarity of Walford’s prose and the logic of his explanation of systematic ideology an excellent foundation for further exploration.”
(Thelma J. Shin, State University of Arizona)

“Grand narrative… contends that ideology forms part of an evolutionary continuum… risks exaggerating the coherence and homogenity of the ideologies… dense and over-ambitious.”
(Julia Stapleton, Durham University Journal)

“(This) theory is one of the most important and interesting in its field… its solution to the point of view from which one discusses an ideology is embedded within the theory itself… written lucidly.”
(Zvi Lamm, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

“The erudition leaves you gasping. The lucid, witty style is a delight in itself. And it makes you think, which is always a healthy exercise.”
(Freedom, Anarchist Fortnightly)

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Ideological Commentary

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from Ideological Commentary 54, Winter 1991.

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