How Not to Treat Ideas

The philosophical school I consider most sensible sees ideas as the means by which human beings gain understanding of reality. Ideas are what help us navigate reality so we can live successfully, which is why so much effort has been spent on developing, criticizing and analyzing ideas throughout human history, especially in the academy, not just in the sciences but in matters of public concern.

But in the modern age a good many thinkers have come to believe that ideas are actually expressions of passions or interests, brought about so as to promote the satisfaction of desires. Or, in other words, that they are simply ideology.

This attitude appeared to be what lay behind a question some journalists on TV were asking about Ron Paul. On a round table television program I was watching recently, several of journalists were discussing results from the various primaries and caucuses, and some of them asked, "What is Ron Paul after? What does he want? What is driving him?" This in part because, well, he isn't very likely to win. And the answer that Ron Paul is actually interested in figuring things out and then teaching people something – for example about the US Constitution, about the Federal Reserve system, about the nature of money – just kept being overlooked. No, Paul has to have an agenda of some sort, like wanting to be a vice-presidential candidate, like getting appointed to some federal department, etc. Just advancing and defending certain ideas so as to promote understanding on the part of the electorate seems to be unfathomable to these journalists. There has to be an angle!

Here is one main source of the widespread cynicism about American politics. People look at candidates and office holders as always being out for something – power, wealth, fame, and the like. Wanting to be correct about political matters seems not to matter. Getting it right about the Fed or the US Constitution – that is, truth – is passe. Why?

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