Ideological Means and Ends

How Ideology Shapes the Teleology and Instrumentality of Action

In last week’s article Know Your Enemy, I wrote:

Our Neo-Marxist capitalist ruling class has gone insane… Because they are insane, the Neo-Marxist capitalist ruling class is no longer capable of rationality. As such, they are no longer capable of making rational choices that will sustain their own — or our! — existence. Indeed, they won’t even try to sustain our existence because they do not value it. Their insanity is such that they willingly will choose course of actions that are self-destructive… What will be the means by which this self-destruction will be achieved? What have they chosen as the form of our destructor?

Before I delve into the “form of our destructor,” I want to answer a question that was brought up in various ways by several of you in the comments last week: “Woe, do you really think that Neo-Marxist Capitalism explains everything that is going on?”

Yes and no. My model of the Neo-Marxist Capitalist ideology is just that: A model. As statistician George Box famously remarked, “all models are wrong, but some models are useful.” Obviously there is more going on than Neo-Marxism. Indeed, I have written in other essays about my belief that there is a spiritual component to the present-day struggle. But as far as models go, I think it’s a great one, because ideology is powerful, and Neo-Marxist Capitalism is a powerful ideology.

The Power of Ideology

To model human action, we must understand the teleology and instrumentalities of action. By the teleology of action I mean “the purpose at which the behavior is aimed.” By the instrumentalities of action I mean “the instrumental methods by which the purpose can be achieved.”

Every ideology, whether it be Objectivism, Neo-Marxism, or Christian Nationalism, can operate at both the teleological and instrumental levels. That is, an ideology can have two major effects on its adherents:

• It can determine the objectives they pursue.

• It can determine the means by which they pursue their objectives.

Many thinkers on the Right fail to understand the importance of ideology because they adopt a strictly teleological perspective on the ideology. I encounter this again and again, so much so that I wrote an entire essay about it.

For now, an example will suffice.

• WEF oligarchs hold to an ideology of radical environmentalism that asserts that we must achieve zero carbon emissions in order to save the planet from climate change.

• WEF oligarchs fly in private jets to Davos climate conferences, spewing carbon in vast quantities.

From the fact that WEF oligarchs fly private jets, should we conclude that the WEF oligarchs are not actually adherents of radical environmentalism?

The typical conservative will say: “If they were really radical environmentalists, they wouldn’t do that!” And this is so widespread that pointing out the “hypocrisy” of the Left is practically a Right-wing hobby! From this critique-of-hypocrisy, from this notion that Leftists don’t actually believe in their ideology, it follows that it makes no sense for the right-wing enemies of the oligarchs to waste their time understanding what radical environmentalists purport to believe, because the oligarchs don’t really believe it — what actually is driving the behavior is simply the lust for money and power.

But this conclusion, I believe, is a terrible mistake. By focusing on hypocrisy regarding the perceived teleology, it ignores the instrumental effect that ideology can have even on those who don’t share the teleology.

That is, it ignores the fact that ideology can serve as a constraint on the behavior of human beings, even if the human beings do not agree with the goal of the ideology. Conversely, ideology can remove constraints on the behavior of human beings who agree with the goal of the ideology by giving them the end that justifies their means.

Patterns of (Dis)belief

It could be the case that Bill Gates genuinely believes in WEF radical environmentalism, and sees himself as a central figure in accomplishing its goals. In that case, the fact that he has to fly a private jet to climate conferences is simply a necessary evil - the end (saving the planet) justifies the means (using a private jet).

It could also be the case that Bill Gates doesn’t care about radical environmentalism. Instead, he cares about going to conferences with other global elites where he can build relationships, make deals, and gain power and money. However, he thinks the other elites do care about radical environmentalism. In that case, the fact that he has to fly a private jet to climate conferences is simply a necessary evil - the end (gaining power and status at elite summits) justifies the means (virtue signaling about climate change).

It could even be the case that every single one of the global elite is a power-hungry sociopath, and that none of them believe in radical environmentalism. But they each privately fear that some of the others do believe it, and are therefore forced by power politics to “toe the party line.” The elite are just as capable of preference falsification as the proletariats — probably even more so.

Finally, it could be the case that each of the global elite believes that radical environmentalism is a useful tool for accomplishing their private objectives of power and money because the instrumentalities of action it affords (bureaucracy, centralization, regulation) enhance their power, and it therefore deliberately cultivates preference falsification.

In fact, it is the existence of widespread preference falsification, amply documented in the book Private Truths, Public Lies, that makes ideology so powerful. It turns out that ideology can entirely dictate the instrumentalities of action even if no one actually believes in the ideology’s teleology at all! Once preference falsification is in place, all that is required is that the ideology calls for the punishment of those who violate its tenets.

Since ideology can both or either the ends and means, ideology has power even over those who do not believe in that - or any - ideology’s objectives.

The Ultimate Ideology

From the point of view of a culture warrior, the best ideology will be one that, regardless of its objective:

• affords him all the instrumentalities necessary to advance his self-interest;

• denies his rivals or subjects the instrumentalities necessary to oppose him;

• is either believed, or believed to be believed by others, by those who have the power to affect him; and

• justifies the punishment of those who break it.

Note that the ideology does not need to have the instrumentalities necessary to actually achieving the ideology’s objective. Achieving an ideology’s objective is generally bad, because then it ceases to justify action! (If you are supplying arms to a belligerent in a war, you don’t actually want your client to gain its objectives and end the war. If you are running MADD, you don’t actually want to eliminate drunk driving.)

Thus, for purposes of cultural warfare, the very best ideology will be one whose objectives are unattainable, either because they are innately impossible or because the ideology itself precludes the means necessary to attain them.

Neo-Marxist Capitalism fits this pattern perfectly:

• Its objectives can never be obtained because they are contrary to the empirical reality of nature and, indeed, self-contradicting;

• Its unobtainable objective affords the ruling class the instrumentalities necessary to advance their self-interest through centralization of power into managerialism;

• It denies the ruled class the instrumentalities necessary to oppose it (solidarity, freedom, rights) by dividing them into groups in conflict by race, class, sex, and so on, and then constraining their behavior because of those conflicts;

• It is believed, or believed to be believed by others, by a large percentage of both the ruling and ruled class; and

• It justifies the punishment of those who break its tenets by cancellation, deplatforming, and, ultimately, gulags and killing fields.

Neo-Marxism is the Xenomorph of ideological Leftism, the perfect organism, the ultimate predator.

That it requires you to be insane to believe it merely makes it easier to identify and punish those who oppose it. That its goals are impossible matters not at all: Ideological politics is not the art of the possible. Ideological politics is the art of persuading others that the impossible is both desirable and possible - if only you had more power.