fighting ideology

[William S. Lear]

On Saturday, April 10, 1999 at 00:41:44 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes:
>In his New York Press column this week, Chris Caldwell quotes "French art
>scholar and political scientist Alain Besancon," in his book Le Malheur Du
>Siecle, as saying:
>
>"In battling ideological regimes, the main thing is to refuse - without
>discussion - the description of reality that it proposes. You have to stick
>to this line until the bitter end. Once you put your finger into the
>gearworks and grant that their description has an 'element of
>truth'...you're lost, and your political will can only respond with a
>falsified intelligence.... In ideology, the 'element of truth' that
>provides the seductive power is precisely the place of falsification - and
>the biggest falsehood of all."

In other words we must retain a Manichean model of reality, with
Absolute Evil on one side (theirs) and Absolute Good on our side
(ours).

Lovely.

Bill