Not so novel thought
Page 316, “Alexandra” (Tatiana) tells Smiley:
She [Tatiana’s mother] was not obedient to history. That is to say, she believed that history had taken a wrong course. She was mistaken. The people should not attempt to change history. It is the task of history to change the people.
And that, in a nutshell, is a description of ideology (and ideologues) everywhere: the too-often insane belief that there’s a system (“history” – or religion …or whatever) that changes people, when it might actually be the other way around.
Now, interesting corollary: there’s an ideology that claims that people are unchanging – the old saw about “human nature” etc.
…You know, as in: “It’s in human nature to (a)… or (b)… or (c)…,” meaning, “we can’t really change this/ do anything about it,” …which ends up as an excuse for putting up with crap.
Somewhere in between those two pieces of junk is a dialectic perhaps – I hope.
No Comments yet
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.