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[S]hould we attempt to use sensible words to deal with these problems, they will be caught up immediately in the structures of the official arguments which accompany the official modern ideologies - arguments as sterile as the ideologies are irrelevant. Our society contains no method of serious self-criticism for the simple reason that it is now a self-justifying system which generates its own logic.

John Ralston Saul#7

PoliticsIdeologyCriticismSystems

About this quote

What does it mean?
Official ideologies create self-justifying systems that block serious self-criticism.
In plain terms
Self-justifying systems prevent real critique.
What can you take from it?
Systems often block their own self-criticism.

Where it applies

  • policy analysis
  • institutional critique
  • social reform

Putting it to work

  • challenge official arguments
  • seek external critique

Questions to consider

  • How can societies critique themselves?
  • Are all systems self-justifying?

Another view

Self-criticism occurs, though it may be limited.

More from John Ralston Saul

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  2. A man who uses power to do evil is in theory judged to have been conscious of his acts and to be as fit for punishment as a perpetrator of premeditated murder.…

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  3. Thus the Age of Reason has turned out to be the Age of Structure; a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become t…

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