Quotes about ideology
page 10

Suniti Kumar Chatterji photo

“Nazi ideology offered redemption from a national ontological crisis, to which it was attracted like a predatory shark to blood.”

Michael Burleigh (1955) American historian and writer

Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 12

Jacques Ellul photo
Baruch Spinoza photo
Ho Chi Minh photo
Chris Hedges photo
Abimael Guzmán photo
Joseph E. Stiglitz photo
Vivek Agnihotri photo
Vivek Agnihotri photo
Krystal Ball photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Abimael Guzmán photo
Vladimir Putin photo
Mikhail Gorbachev photo
Mao Zedong photo
Mao Zedong photo

“It is only firmly maintaining the national united front that the difficulties can be overcome, the enemy defeated and a new China built. This is beyond all doubt. At the same time, every party and group in the united front must preserve its ideological, political and organizational independence; this holds good for the Kuomintang, the Communist Party or any other party or group.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

The Selected Readings of Mao Tse-Tung, pp. 144
Role of the Chinese Communist Party (October 1938)
Original: (zh-CN) 坚持民族统一战线才能克服困难,战胜敌人,建设新中国,这是毫无疑义的。但是在同时,必须保持加入统一战线中的任何党派在思想上、政治上和组织上的独立性,不论是国民党也好,共产党也好,其他党派也好,都是这样。

Mao Zedong photo

“All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Combat Liberalism (1937)
Original: (zh-CN) 一切忠诚、坦白、积极、正直的共产党员团结起来,反对一部分人的自由主义的倾向,使他们改变到正确的方面来。这是思想战线的任务之一。

David Foster Wallace photo
Leszek Kolakowski photo

“The social conditions that nourished and made use of this ideology can still revive; perhaps - who knows?”

Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009) Philosopher, historian of ideas

the virus is dormant, waiting for the next opportunity. Dreams about the perfect society belong to the enduring stock of civilization.
New Preface, p. vi
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)

Evo Morales photo

“Our sin is that we are ideologically anti-imperialist, but this coup won’t make me change ideologically… We are very grateful to the president of Mexico, because he saved my life.”

Evo Morales (1959) Bolivian politician

Quoted by Clifford Krauss https://www.nytimes.com/by/clifford-krauss, in ‘I Assume the Presidency’: Bolivia Lawmaker Declares Herself Leader https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/world/americas/evo-morales-mexico-bolivia.html, The New York Times, (12 November 2019)

Charles Stross photo
Jerry Coyne photo

“In other words, (Helen) Pluckrose et al. got a lot more attention than I did. And that’s fine. For they did, to my mind, expose a creeping rot in the floorboards of academic humanities, which has becoming increasingly solipsistic, tendentious, propagandistic, and devoid of critical thinking but besotted with intersectionalist ideology.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" Campus journalism fracas reaches the New York Times https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/07/26/the-grievance-studies-hoax-a-forum-at-the-chronicle-of-higher-education/" July 26, 2019

Jerry Coyne photo

“What the comedy club in Montreal is doing is not only ridiculous, but is a prime example of virtue signaling: making a gesture to trumpet your own ideological purity, but a gesture that has no effect on society and no mitigation of injustice.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" Accusations of cultural appropriation gone wild: Canadian comedy club bars white comedian with dreadlocks https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/accusations-of-cultural-appropriation-gone-wild-canadian-comedy-club-bars-white-comedian-with-dreadlocks/" January 16, 2019

Michael Parenti photo
Angela Davis photo
Michel Foucault photo
Roy Jenkins photo
Roy Jenkins photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“We also visited one of our great partners in the Southern Cone: Argentina. With President Mauricio Macri and our partners from Uruguay and Paraguay, we pushed ideology away from Mercosur. We also have been able to achieve important victories in terms of international trade, by successfully finalizing negotiations that had been going on for decades without a conclusion.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Speech at the at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil http://statements.unmeetings.org/GA74/BR_EN.pdf. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

Benjamin Creme photo
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo
Clement Attlee photo
Clement Attlee photo
Fidel Castro photo

“Marxism-Leninism is an explanation of historical events; Marxism-Leninism is a guide for action, Marxism-Leninism is the ideology of the proletariat, which must guide, make its action conscious to overthrow exploiters, to establish a classless society.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Speech (2 December 1971) http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1971/esp/f021271e.html

Fidel Castro photo

“Marxism-Leninism is the ideology of the working class, the most complete political doctrine, the most accurate explanation of social and historical problems.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Speech (7 June 1972) http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1972/esp/f070672e.html

Saddam Hussein photo
Narendra Modi photo

“Take the cases of Kerala or Kashmir, Bengal or Tripura, it will not come in the media. Some people have selective sensitivity. Hundreds of workers have been killed only for political ideology. In Tripura, workers were hanged. In Bengal, murders are still on. In Kerala too … perhaps, in India only one political party has faced such killings. Violence has been given legitimacy. This is a danger before us.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

May 2019. Quoted from BJP workers killed in Bengal for their ideology https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bjp-workers-killed-in-bengal-for-their-ideology-says-pm-modi-tmc-calls-allegation-baseless/articleshow/69525655.cms Times of India
2019

Leanne Wood photo

“All forms of political violence are the same. USA, Barcelona, everywhere. They are ideology-driven & we have to understand that to stop it.”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

Barcelona reaction: Leanne Wood comments spark outrage https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-40974199, BBC News, 18 August 2017
2017

David Cameron photo
Gerda Lerner photo
Baruch Spinoza photo

“To sum it up in a word: Marx was close to Hegel in his insistence on rejecting every philosophy of the Origin and of the Subject, whether rationalist, empiricist or transcendental; in his critique of the cogito, of the sensualist-empiricist subject and of the transcendental subject, thus in his critique of the idea of a theory of knowledge. Marx was close to Hegel in his critique of the legal subject and of the social contract, in his critique of the moral subject, in short of every philosophical ideology of the Subject, which whatever the variation involved gave classical bourgeois philosophy the means of guaranteeing its ideas, practices and goals by not simply reproducing but philosophically elaborating the notions of the dominant legal ideology. And if you consider the grouping of these critical themes, you have to admit that Marx was close to Hegel just in respect to those features which Hegel had openly borrowed from Spinoza, because all this can be found in the Ethics and the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

These deep-rooted affinities are normally passed over in pious silence; they nevertheless constitute, from Epicurus to Spinoza and Hegel, the premises of Marx's materialism. They are hardly ever mentioned, for the simple reason that Marx himself did not mention them, and so the whole of the Marx-Hegel relationship is made to hang on the dialectic, because this Marx did talk about!

Louis Althusser, Essays in Self-Criticism (1976), "Is it Simple to be a Marxist in Philosophy?"
A - F, Louis Althusser

Baruch Spinoza photo
Bret Stephens photo

“This is a presidency whose defining feature isn’t ideology, much less policy. It’s neurosis.”

Bret Stephens (1973) far-right American

"Trump Gives Conservatives Their Just Comeuppance" http://archive.is/bD7xJ (15 September 2017), The New York Times

Wilhelm Reich photo
Mark Satin photo

“From the United States there seemed to be not one but many different kinds of movements developing … as well as a number of ideologies that already then seemed to be in competition with one another: the social ecology of Murray Bookchin, the new-age politics of Mark Satin, the appropriate technology of Amory Lovins, the ecofeminism of Carolyn Merchant, to name some of those that I became acquainted with.”

Mark Satin (1946) American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher

Jamison, Andrew (2001). The Making of Green Knowledge: Environmental Politics and Cultural Transformation. Cambridge University Press, p. 5. ISBN 978-0-521-79252-3. The author is discussing the period of the late 1970s.
New Age and Green activism

Louis Althusser photo

“I shall call Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institutions: …”

the religious ISA (the system of the different churches),
the educational ISA (the system of the different public and private ‘schools’),
the family ISA,
the legal ISA,
the political ISA (the political system, including the different parties),
the trade-union ISA,
the communications ISA (press, radio and television, etc.),
the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sports, etc.).
Source: Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968), "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses", p. 96

Mohammad Hidayatullah photo

“He was a Gandhian in ideology, essentially cosmopolitan in outlook, truly Indian in culture, a poet at heart and an activist in thoughts.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992) 11th Chief Justice of India

By R.K. Jain
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

Chandra Shekhar photo

“I do not expect any problems to arise because we do not expect Mr. Chandra Shekhar to do anything that is inconsistent with Congress ideology and policies.”

Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) Indian politician

Vithal Gadgil in: Sanjoy Hazarika "Rival of Singh Becomes India Premier"

After extending support to Shekahr to form the government.

Lata Mangeshkar photo

“Lata Mangeshkar is known to have been a sympathiser of the Hindutva ideology. In fact, she was a sympathiser of the pro-Hindu Mahasabha, which is a hardcore rightist organisation. Despite that she was given various awards by governments of varying political hues only and only for her mind-boggling contribution to film music.”

Lata Mangeshkar (1929) Indian singer

Strip Lata Mangeshkar of Padma, Bharat Ratna awards, says Congress leader Janardhan Chandurkar, 29 November 2013, DNA India http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-strip-lata-mangeshkar-of-padma-bharat-ratna-awards-says-congress-leader-janardhan-chandurkar-1918239,

Allen West (politician) photo
Guy Debord photo
Russell Brand photo
Vandana Shiva photo

“When you call somebody a fraud, that suggests the person knows she is lying. I don’t think Vandana Shiva necessarily knows that. But she is blinded by her ideology and her political beliefs. That is why she is so effective and so dangerous.”

Vandana Shiva (1952) Indian philosopher

Mark Lynas, journalist and environmental activist, as quoted in " Seeds of Doubt http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/seeds-of-doubt" by Michael Specter, The New Yorker (25 August 2014)

Martin Amis photo
Karl Rove photo
Abdullah Öcalan photo
Abdullah Öcalan photo

“Sexism, just as nationalism, is an ideology through which power is generated and nation-states are built. Sexism is not a function of biological differences.”

Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK

Source: The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Liberating Life: Women's Revolution, pp.72

Donald J. Trump photo

“America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Address to UN General Assembly, quoted in * 2018-09-25
Trump’s Speech at the U.N. Triggers Laughter—and Disbelief
Robin Wright
The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trumps-speech-at-the-un-triggers-laughterand-disbelief
2010s, 2018, September

Jerry Coyne photo

“Yes, the claim that sex in humans is not a binary is pretty much a lie, and is made on ideological rather than scientific grounds.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" A defense of the binary in human sex https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/a-defense-of-the-binary-in-human-sex/" February 14, 2020

Michel Henry photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Daniel Hannan photo

“The ideology of work and the ethics of effort therefore become cover for ultra-competitive egoism and careerism: the best succeed, the others have only themselves to blame; hard work should be encouraged and rewarded, which therefore means we should not subsidize the unemployed, the poor and all the other 'layabouts.'”

André Gorz (1923–2007) austrian philosopher

This ideology (which in Europe finds its most overt expression in Thatcherism) is strictly rational, as far as capitalism is concerned: the aim to motivate a workforce which cannot easily be replaced (for the moment, at least) and control it ideologically for want of a means of controlling it physically. In order to do this, it must preserve the work-force's adherence to the work ethic, destroy the relations of solidarity that could bind it to the less fortunate, and persuade it that by doing as much work as possible it will best serve the collective interest as well as its own private interests. It will thus be necessary to conceal the fact that. there is an increasing structural glut of workers and an increasing structural shortage of secure, full-time jobs; in short, that the economy no longer needs everyone to work - and will do so less and less. And that; as a consequence, the 'society of work' is obsolete: work can no longer serve as the basis for social integration. But, to conceal these facts it is necessary to find alternative explanations for the rise in unemployment" and the decrease in job security. It will thus be asserted that casual labourers and the unemployed are not serious about looking for work; do not possess adequate skills, are encouraged to be idle by over~ generous dole payments and so on. And, it will be added, these people are all paid far too much for the little they are able to do, with the result that the economy, which is groaning under the weight of these excessive burdens, is no longer buoyant enough to create a growing number of jobs. And the conclusion will be reached that, 'To end unemployment, we have to work more.'

pp. 69-70 https://books.google.com/books?id=WbpvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69
Critique of Economic Reason, 1988

Richard D. Wolff photo

“[O]ne cannot respect the orthodox version of history without perpetuating the ideology behind it.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2020s, On the United Future Party (2020)

Jerry Coyne photo

“As we know, wokeness prizes ideology and narrative over truth.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" The New York Times touts Gwyneth Paltrow and “her other ways of knowing” https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/gwyneth-paltrow-and-her-other-ways-of-knowing-touted-in-the-nyt/" November 29, 2019

“Ideological hegemony is the process by which the exploited come to view the world through a conceptual framework provided to them by their exploiters. It acts first of all to conceal class conflict and exploitation behind a smokescreen of "national unity" or "general welfare."”

Kevin Carson (1963) American academic

Those who point to the role of the state as guarantor of class privilege are denounced, in theatrical tones of moral outrage, for "class warfare."
"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege" (2011)

Gianni Vattimo photo

“Soviet communism and Western capitalism share the same crazy ideology: forced industrialization of society.”

Gianni Vattimo (1936–2023) Italian philosopher, politician

"Only Weak Communism Can Save Us" (2013)

Sheldon Pollock photo
Rajiv Malhotra photo

“India is the world largest territory, both geographically and by population, that is up for grabs by the expansionist, predatory ideological movements in the world.”

Rajiv Malhotra (1950) Indian-American entrepreneur and author

“India Is The World’s Largest Territory Which Is Up For Grabs By Predatory Forces” by R Jagannathan - Mar 09, 2018, https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/india-is-the-worlds-largest-territory-which-is-up-for-grabs-by-predatory-forces

Mark Manson photo