#716 Azar Gat - Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars
RECORDED ON DECEMBER 2nd 2022.
Dr. Azar Gat is the Ezer Weizman Professor of National Security at Tel Aviv University, in Israel. He is the founder and head of the University’s International Program in Security and Diplomacy Executive Master’s Program in Diplomacy and Security. He’s also the author of books like A History of Military Thought, War in Human Civilization, and Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism. His most recent book is Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars.
In this episode, we focus on Ideological Fixation. We start by addressing the premise of the book, and the current relevance of understanding ideology. We talk about ideology and its psychological foundations. We discuss what truth is, and the postmodernist challenge. We talk about the conflict between religion and science, and go through ideologies like liberalism, socialism, and fascism. We also discuss the ideological conflict between the “West” and the “Rest”, the biggest debates in contemporary liberal democracies, and the “culture wars”. We talk about intellectuals as the source of most ideologies. Finally, we discuss if having an ideology is something bad, how to best understand how ideologies develop, and if there are solutions for the current ideological conflicts.
Time Links:
Intro
The current relevance of ideology
Ideology, ideological fixation, and their psychological foundations
What is truth, and the postmodernist challenge
The conflict between science and religion
19th and 20th-century ideologies – liberalism, socialism, and fascism
The “West” and the “Rest”
The biggest debates in contemporary liberal democracies
The “culture wars”
Intellectuals as the source of most ideologies
Is having an ideology something bad?
Is ideological thinking best understood at the individual or the collective level?
Are there solutions for the current ideological conflicts?
Follow Dr. Gat’s work!
Follow Dr. Gat’s work:
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/3hkYy8y
Works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/3mPv5ET
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2M6ZKRv
Ideological Fixation: https://amzn.to/3yup5dJ