so today in recent political theory we were discussing once again bernard crick and the chapter on technology in his book, In Defence of Politics. It is interesting because everyone criticizes the government for arguing all the time and never agreeing and (as i stated in an earlier blog about the federal budget), that it seems that they have their own interests in mind instead of wanting to work together to pursue the interest of the country. but crick argues that this arguing and disagreement is needed. the minute that a government or beaureucracy or anybody claims to understand society and human action, and claims that everybody should follow it, they are proposing an ideology, which is the death of politics and is the beginnings to a totalitarian government. for ideologies tend to oversimplify the world reducing all human actions to the result of one or more factors. e.g. Marxism which reduces everything to economics. therefore it is necessary for different interests and claimed truths to be debated, discussed and struggled with in the political realm

crick also argues that scientism or the worship of science as a god has serious effects on politics. for when people believe in science whole heartedly, they expect that all human problems can be solved and happiness can be found using the scientific method and hard facts. People champion science because of its unity and therefore those who believe that they can find the answer to the problems of society automatically claim an ideology which they feel that all people should follow. once again, this is the death of politics as there is no more talking and the leader (who feels his/her ideology is completely true) will try to use whatever means to pursue it and put it into effect. throughout history we can see the seriousness of the effects of this under lenin, stalin and hitler.

i have really begun to see the serious of scientism and its effects on our society in the way people talk about politics. so many times people in our church (from my experience) solely support president bush and thing he is like the best politician of our time. but this worries me as president bush him self embraces an ideology of how the world works and is calling all nations to accept it. and he has no problem of using different coercive methods to push his ideology on other nations. this is very dangerous as the US and President Bush is forcing an ideology on the people of the world which causes a death in politics. (Of course, he is not forcing the ideology on people to the extent of hitler, stalin, lenin or the like, but it is still being done in a milder form.) I agree that God should have a place in the government but i feel he extends it to far. And people boast about the US as the champion of democracy and freedom. But are they really a free society? maybe this explains why Americans love their local and state governments - because not everyone agrees with what bush is doing.

What im trying to say is that disagreement is politics is necessary for politics and freedom to actually survive. There is a line between having a vision for a country and claiming an ideology as the only way. so even though people may be frustrated because politics is messy...it is a necessity. maybe politicians should not be getting as bad a rap as they are getting today?