QuoteProject
How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?
Andrew Sullivan
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

A political ideology may take on a religious fervor when it is held with unwavering belief, disregarding rational critique.

This quote suggests that a political ideology can become akin to a religion when its followers embrace it with the same zeal and unquestioning faith that people often have towards religious beliefs. In such cases, critical thinking and rational discussion are replaced by dogma, leading to a situation where the ideology shapes one's worldview so completely that it supersedes objective truth and promotes intolerance toward differing opinions.

Themes

Political IdeologyReligionBeliefDogmaCritical Thinking

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about political beliefs, one could reference this quote to illustrate how some ideologies are accepted religiously.

More from Andrew Sullivan

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.
Andrew SullivanRead
Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is.
Andrew SullivanRead
My own early crusade for same-sex marriage, for example, is now mainstream gay politics. It wasn't when I started.
Andrew SullivanRead
The most successful marriages, gay or straight, even if they begin in romantic love, often become friendships. It's the ones that become the friendships that last.
Andrew SullivanRead

Similar quotes

Mom said, "His spirit is there," and that made me really angry. I told her, "Dad didn't have a spirit! He had cells!" "His memory is there." "His memory is here," I said, pointing at my head. "Dad had a spirit," she said, like she was rewinding a bit in our conversation. I told her, "He had cells, and now they're on rooftops, and in the river, and in the lungs of millions of people around New York, who breathe him every time they speak!
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.
George R. R. MartinRead
he threw up his hands and wrote the Universe dont exist and died to prove it
Allen GinsbergRead
Lincoln's appeal to "the better angels of our nature" failed to avert a fratricidal war. But the compassionate wisdom of Lincoln's first and second inaugurals bequeathed to the Union, cemented with blood, a moral heritage which, when drawn upon in times of stress and strife, is sure to find specific ways and means to surmount difficulties that may appear to be insurmountable.
Felix FrankfurterRead
Every human being has an assortment of diverse identities, and it greatly matters which one is triggered by social situations, which hold up different kinds of mirrors. The same is true for nations.
Cass SunsteinRead
I want to live as long as possible, just to see how stupid it gets.
Susan SontagRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.