The Trouble with Ideologies

It may be that some of the most important aspects of peace are quite invisible.

I believe that one of them is the attitude of mind by which we approach the universe, the world, other humans, and animals and the environment. Do we have a pre-cooked 'solution', or 'answer' that will explain everything or fix everything, or which is responsible for all the evil in the world? That's putting it a bit strongly, maybe, and for sure lots of people take their ideologies with a large grain of salt, but in its core, that is the essence of an ideology. There are lots of them: communism, Marxism, extremist religions, socialism, feminism, nazism, racism, environmentalism, and so on.

The other approach is to just judge reality as best as we can with the mental tools available - and to get the best tools! Adopt the scientific attitude, test claims against evidence, incorporate caring and compassion so that our rationality doesn't get disconnected from real human beings, educate ourselves in the widest sense, not merely as in getting a piece of paper to hang on the wall (but do that too) - in other words, love truth and use it to better ourselves and others.

The problem is that this program is just too pedestrian, too boring. It is much more exciting to think that one is 'subverting' all the cozy but misguided preconceptions of 'The Establishment', to believe in a daring 'solution' to all the world's troubles, so much more fun to proudly cheer the Great Leader who sees beyond the mundane world. But real people, and the real animals who share our planet, live lives filled with ordinary concerns - finding a soulmate, bringing up children, making a decent and happy life. The heroic 'grand experiment', the deconstruction, the subversion, the great leader, the grand plan, these things poison the ordinary decent lives most of us want to lead.

And great ideologies clash - with each other, and with folk who merely wish to be left alone - and they prevent all of us finding peace.