by Mary Wakefiled Buxton –
URBANNA —
This nation is facing monumental problems. One particularly tragic situation most everyone is concerned about today is the relatively recent polarization of America into red and blue states.
One cause for this sad political division of the American family is simply there are too many ideologues in power and at all levels of society — especially in the fields of government, media and education.
What is an ideologue? It is a person who marches to a certain dogma and stubbornly believes he is right and others with different opinions are wrong. He will not compromise.
An Ideologue marches to the drumbeats of dogma and the idea “it’s my way or the highway.” The irony is ideologues destroy democracy because democracy demands tolerance and compromise to survive.
Ideologues can be found in every area of society but mostly gravitate into the fields of politics and/ or religion. Obsession in diet, health, and lifestyle are also areas that attract ideologues. In my lifelong experience of dodging ideologues, I advise others to never become trapped in any conversation with one!
Why are ideologues particularly unsuited to serve in government? Simply because if they can get power, they will insist of enacting legislation according to their own dogma and disregard the views of the majority.
In education, an ideologue will follow dogma rather than encourage freedom of thought and will inevitably shut down expression of opposing ideas in the classroom. I can remember a professor I encountered once that taught the history of Mexico as a “struggle for socialism.” I did not believe any educator should teach any history according to a political ideology, rather events should be presented to students in a totally unbiased attitude. Unfortunately, many educators today are not doing this.
In media, ideology is even more apparent. We see television and radio news presented today with either left or right bias and newspaper journalists follow the same course. Instead of independent thinkers, as writers should always strive to be, most journalists today appear to be political operatives working for either the Republican or Democratic party!
I have also noticed ideologues lack a sense of humility and are even inclined to be arrogant. They are certain they are right, that they alone are the enlightened ones and, if others don’t agree with their brilliant ideas, then they are somehow beneath them, stupid or uneducated. I remember several decades ago that a number of college professors and other literati thought so highly of their intellectual prowess that they referred to themselves as “the Brights.” One wondered whether such a group considered others with less education as “the Darks?”
Another trait of an ideologue is they seldom, if ever, doubt or even reflect over what they believe. But are not these traits essential ingredients of thinking?
We’ve seen some ideologues in positions of power in Middlesex County, and they usually don’t fare well. I once attended a meeting where the public was asked to comment on proposed legislation for the regulation of guns. This struck me at the time as a somewhat inappropriate idea since our county was rural and known for its substantial number of hunters and even had a local gun club of almost 1,000 members.
The gun owners showed up en masse and it did not take a rocket scientist to notice they were outraged and stood up and said so in no uncertain terms. Despite this, (and whether it was an act of individual courage or just plain foolishness), two of the supervisors voted yes on the gun control measure. (They are no longer on the board.)
Of course, every supervisor has the right to express his opinion just like everyone else. But shouldn’t he then listen to and consider the opinions of the voters he represents? Isn’t that what we expect in democracy? An ideologue, however, will vote his opinion over the opinion of the majority. Because of this, ideologues are not suited to serve the public.
It’s a short hop from an ideologue to a tyrant. A free society must respond to the majority but always with respect to the rights of the minority, if it hopes to stay free and if this does not happen, the service of an ideologue is soon over.
Or would this be better said … “hope springs eternal from the breast of man?”
© 2022.
