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Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com


 
 
                                          IDEOLOGY 
                                   0
              The human mind seeks to create order out of Chaos
 
           It  is in the nature of humanity to attempt to formulate laws from ex-
           perience  as a guide to  future action. Acting  as a feedback-response
           mechanism, the  mind considers the  results of previous  behaviour and
           creates laws of action in  an attempt to repeat past good  results and
           avoid  bad results. In the individual this is known as personality, in
           the communal world it is known as science.
 
                                   1
                      All scientific laws are false
 
           Science attempts to map the  universe as a result of  previous collec-
           tive  experience.  Since this  is limited  to  what has  actually been
           experienced so  far, it is always inadequate, and since it is not what
           has been experienced it  is always human-centred. It cannot  be objec-
           tive  because the object does not experience, only the subject, human-
           ity, experiences. Two approaches  have been used to tackle  this prob-
           lem.  The philosophy  of the  western world  posits that  an external,
           objective world interacts with  us through scientific experiment, thus
           science  creates  objectively  true  laws.  Other European  philosophy
           holds, correctly  in my view,  that talk  of an  objective reality  is
           beyond experience and is thus meaningless babble. Moreover, scientific
           experiment is no more objective than a childs attempt to walk. To Know
           is  not a high ideal, it is an  instinct born of our particular way of
           survival, and is thus survival-centred. Science is our Elephant Trunk,
           our Giraffe  Neck,  and since  it is  inherently inadequate,  it is  a
           belief system, a set of interconnected ideas-about-things. In terms of
           European, Post-Hegelian philosophy, it is an ideology.
 
                                   2
              All idealogies are subject to chaotic dissolution
 
           Every idealogy,  whether science,  Christianity or whatever,  seeks to
           and succeeds in creating a coherent view of reality that satisfies its
           believers. The problem is  that there is inevitably a gulf between the
           idealogy and reality. Ideologies are fixed; reality is fluid. Thus all
           ideologies are subject to readjustment when a new discovery challenges
           the  existing  view. The  rediscovery  of the  Greek  text of  the New
           Testament and the  discovery of  the non-existence of  the Ether  each
           corroded the existing ideologies of their day.
 
           The Christian  world responded with Reformation  and Counter-Reformat-
           ion. (Historical note: Counter-Reformation  was the Reformation of the
           Catholic Church rather than an attack on  the Protestant Reformation.)
           Science responded with Einsteinian  relativity. These new elements are
           Chaotic. The extent to  which the ideology can  reform depends on  how
           deep the Chaotic  element bites into the  ideological structure. Every
           ideology  has central tenets  upon which the rest  depend: so the dis-
           covery that Jesus was  actually stoned to death rather  than crucified
           would cause major rumblings;  the discovery that he was  a woman would
           cause  deeper  rumblings; but  the discovery  that  he was  a spaceman
           carrying out a  standard sociological experiment would  bring down the
           ideology entire.  Several ideologies have completely  collapsed in the
           past,  such as Ptolomaic astronomy, and it can happen again. Moreover,
           the spread of a unified ideology over the whole globe, Western  Democ-
           racy, leaves the way open to a bigger collapse than ever before.
 
 
                                                                             1253
 
                                   3
                There is no such thing as innate value
 
           All present Western ideologies depend upon a concept of innate
           worth, whereby certain things are automatically "better" than
           others. The White Race, Men, Adults, all have had their "innate"
           value knocked for six. Even the Animal Kingdom is no longer seen as
           of higher worth than the Vegetable as the spread of the Gaia
           hypothesis shows. This is the Chaotic element that can bring down a
           whole pack of cards. There is no ethical reference point, no
           beginning from which to derive an end to aim for, to praise, to work
           towards. As it says in Liber Al: "let there be no difference made
           between one thing and another". The result is a confusion of belief
           as people scramble to find a new ideology. Fundamentalists choose
           deliberate blindness and perverse stupidity. Thelemites choose "pure
           will, unassuaged of purpose". Chaoists worship the confusion itself
           as the only "true thing" left. Pagans begin to construct a new
           ideology based on the absence of heirarchy and turn to cyclical and
           egalitarian beliefs. That a new ideology, or many, will arise is
           inevitable; even the truth of Chaos is only true to us, in our
           experience. But so what. All things considered, I think that things
           are going pretty well.
 
           Further readings:
           Knowledge and Human Interest, J.Habermas, 1967
           Differance, translated as Language and Difference, Derrida, 1959
           Anything by Sir Karl Popper for the view from the opposition
 
           With fractalic greetings and laughter  * Fra.: Apfelmann *
 
 
                                                                             1254
 


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