Very few people "think": very few in comparison with the nation. And which is more, as these thinkers are kept far away from the lofty secrets of politics, from the lofty secrets of science and research, and from the lofty secrets of the police and of those who secretly run propaganda, they are reporters or marionettes. Watchwords are being launched: they start out from hidden places, where a small group of initiated people have discussed the issue: coexistence, avoidable or unavoidable conflict, peace, aggression, imperialism, or its opposite. Immediately, the "thinkers" begin to control these words, they get incited, they create ideologies. And in the footsteps of these small numbers of thinkers come entire nations that are more or less primitive, of intellectuals and artists, trusting them, reiterating what they say, following them, not questioning anything. They are parrots. The former were marionettes. Come to think of it any ideology can be adopted, because it is never denied by facts. In fact, neither is it really confirmed, ever. It is always debatable. An ideology is a system of hypotheses or of observations, impossible to check or always possible to check, depending on whether you are biased, namely for or against that ideology in a blurred way and with your entire being. As far as he is concerned, the scientist has to search, to investigate, to experiment, and to submit himself to objective checks. Facts prove him right or wrong. He has to (re)examine himself all the time. He is forced to be objective. But an ideology worshipper is not subjected to any precise or effective constraint. He can say whatever he wants, he can assert everything, and he can prove to us that everything fits into his system. Indeed, everything seems to begin in every system. I do not worship ideologies, because I am objective, in good faith. I am an artist, I create characters.
Notes et Contrenotes
by Eugen Ionescu (1909-1994)
