Ideology And Tribes

For over a year I have been thinking about writing a blog post concerning ideology.  I made some preliminary notes but none seemed sufficient to convey the my ideas; partially I suspect because I was still developing and expanding those ideas.

It was the something which popped up on one of my social media feeds that prompted me to make this post.  The piece titled "I left the Republican ideological bubble. I don’t want to join another." can be found at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/03/i-left-republican-ideological-bubble-i-dont-want-join-another/ the author is Max Boot.  I am not a Republican however the points that Max Boot makes are not Republican specific.

One way to avoid getting into an ideological bubble is to be aware of the areas where one's own ideology is incomplete, lacking in explanatory ability or simple not accurate.  And the same goes for one's tribe.  And let us acknowledge that the term tribe as used here is not precise however it does serve the purpose of designating for any individual the persons and organizations which tend to have similar values and positions and typically are what the individual might call "my  people" or where a person might feel at home ideologically.  Yet I submit that it is with those that one feels most close to ideologically where one might start a critical review. And note this is not about personality but about ideas.

So as we reflect on the year almost concluded and look forward to the year about to begin it might be worthwhile to examine our own ideological bubbles.