Quote of the Day

by on February 10, 2008 · 6 comments

From Mr. Deity, on ideology:

It’s the worst. Are you kidding me? Look at all the great evils. They’re all ideologically drive. You’ve got the crusades, the Holocaust, Communism, no third-party apps on the iPhone. Never, never surrender yourself to an idea, my friend, never.

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About Tim Lee

Timothy B. Lee (Contributor, 2004-2009) is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is currently a PhD student and a member of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He contributes regularly to a variety of online publications, including Ars Technica, Techdirt, Cato @ Liberty, and The Angry Blog. He has been a Mac bigot since 1984, a Unix, vi, and Perl bigot since 1998, and a sworn enemy of HTML-formatted email for as long as certain companies have thought that was a good idea. You can reach him by email at leex1008@umn.edu.

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  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com/ enigma_foundry

    Methinks Mr. Diety has thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Look at all these folks: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, seems like they did OK being ‘ideologically driven’

    The trouble with this line of thinking is: Mr Deity needs to find a society without ideology, without religion, and then see how that actually worked out. When he does, I’ll listen to his arguments.

    My own belief is that religion restrains more evil than it promotes, and that the people who blame religion for evils that people have commited should instead look at themselves, i.e., human nature for all the sources of hatred that is needed.

    “There is enough treachery, hatred, violence Absurdity in the average human being To supply any given army on any given day.”

    (Charles Bukowski, The Genius of the Crowd)

    So this is so well understood by our poets (see also William Blake) why don’t we listen?

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff

    Methinks Mr. Diety has thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Look at all these folks: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, seems like they did OK being ‘ideologically driven’

    The trouble with this line of thinking is: Mr Deity needs to find a society without ideology, without religion, and then see how that actually worked out. When he does, I’ll listen to his arguments.

    My own belief is that religion restrains more evil than it promotes, and that the people who blame religion for evils that people have commited should instead look at themselves, i.e., human nature for all the sources of hatred that is needed.

    “There is enough treachery, hatred, violence
    Absurdity in the average human being
    To supply any given army on any given day.”

    (Charles Bukowski, The Genius of the Crowd)

    So this is so well understood by our poets (see also William Blake) why don’t we listen?

  • Anonymous

    Ideas aren’t soley good or bad. Good ideas are good and can bring good, bad ideas are bad and can bring bad.

  • Anonymous

    Ideas aren’t soley good or bad. Good ideas are good and can bring good, bad ideas are bad and can bring bad.

  • http://mcgath.blogspot.com Gary McGath

    Perhaps really large-scale evils require an idea, as do large-scale good actions. But the bulk of the harmful action we encounter comes from lack of principles rather than their presence: street muggings, large-scale theft, surrender on the basis of the expediency of the moment, refusal to recognize and oppose evil.

    Without ideas, no one could oppose the Holocaust or Communism. When a Hitler says “All Jews should be killed,” and you answer, “Ideas aren’t worth getting worked up over,” guess which one wins.

  • http://mcgath.blogspot.com Gary McGath

    Perhaps really large-scale evils require an idea, as do large-scale good actions. But the bulk of the harmful action we encounter comes from lack of principles rather than their presence: street muggings, large-scale theft, surrender on the basis of the expediency of the moment, refusal to recognize and oppose evil.

    Without ideas, no one could oppose the Holocaust or Communism. When a Hitler says “All Jews should be killed,” and you answer, “Ideas aren’t worth getting worked up over,” guess which one wins.

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