Ideologue

From Hobson's Choice

An ideologue is someone who identifies the actions or policies appropriate to a particular ideology. This term is often confused with "demagogue," which is normally applied to a leader who uses explosive and overblown rhetoric. Typically "ideologue" is defined as someone who is dogmatic, although it is rare to find authentic uses of the word in that sense.^[1] More objectively, an ideologue represents an ideology to the present time; the ideologue applies an ideology, usually in development, or one contested, to current conditions.

Exposition by Example

The ideologue became important in the wake of the French Revolution, as people became manifestations of ideas. At the time of the Usonian Revolution, it was commonplace to refer to ideologues as "apostles," as, for example, the French "apostles of the revolution" (coined 1789 in reference to the revolutionaries)^[2] The French Revolution brought forth followers of Robespierre ("terrorists") and Hebert ("Hebertists"), Napoleon ("Bonapartists"), and later the concept of the contested ideology became a global phenomenon. In the USA, controversy over the character of liberties guaranteed by the revolution led to another one, while devotion to the spiritual purity of Japan led to constant clashes among rival forms of mystical populism there.

Another issue was the ideology detached from any one polity, such as Communism or Islamic revivalism. In the case of the latter, outright clashes have largely been avoided; in the case of different Communist interpretations, clashes have arisen between Beijing and Muscovite interpretations, as well as others wholly outside the superpower milieu.

Notes

1. ↑ Usually, political uses of a word are misapplications. For example, [successful] US Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee he "was not an ideologue," which is actually a decent characterization of exactly what a jurist does do. Amy Goldstein and Jo Becker, "'I'm Not an Ideologue,' Roberts Tells Senate Panel," Washington Post (16 September 2005). A judge's job is to apply a set of ethical principles (also known as "the law") to a precise set of social and objective conditions, known as "a case."
2. ↑ Laura Mason, Singing the French Revolution: Popular Culture and Politics, 1787-1799 Cornell University Press (1996), p.65. The "Acts of the Apostles" was a reactionary journal in Paris that professed (satirically) to praise the great achievements of the Revolution.