Over the course of the past couple months Ive become more and more suspicious of ideologies in general. Each one, particularly when it comes to social, economic, and political issues, seems to rely upon statements that must be generalizable in order to function as confirmation for the preferred position. But the statements AS generalizations cannot be taken as true. For example: 1. We should defend the police. Their actions are determined during life-threatening situations in order to protect us. 2. We should condemn the police. Theyre corrupt, brutal, and racist. 3. The economy should always be stimulated by government spending in a depression. 4. Redistribution through government spending never helps the economy. 5. Innovations are only achieved by competition, never by government mandate. 6. Competition within industries only harms the economy. 7. A minimum wage will only help the economy. 8. A minimum wage will only harm the economy. 9. Private property always leads to corrupt monopolistic control of resources. 10. Private property always ensures that people can be secure in their possessions or capital. As generalizations every single one of these statements is false. As applied to individual cases the approach expressed in each of them will be right or wrong, but only for the particular situation at hand, the unique context the problem will arise in. But each of the prevailing ideologies demands that we begin to make these kinds of false generalizations if were to adopt one of them or another. Besides this, each one will only be correct depending on what were looking to achieve, since each course of action involves trade-offs, pros and cons. Not a single one of the ideologies that we all argue over, then, ever really has the right idea, because the right idea is not a generalizable idea, but only right for the unique circumstance in which it must be applied.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 04:45:40 +0000
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