ideology

It is their view of men as being reduced to the bare essentials of human nature and their associated capacity to think in abstract terms, where details do not matter, that give people in Prot societies their great propensity to create ideologies. Ideologues are predominantly a product of Prot societies.

An ideology is a rationally devised political program that promises some good to all of mankind, or at least the majority of it. It is impossible to think about such a program without looking at mankind as being composed by men who are essentially the same for only then one can make the argument that what is good for one man is good for the majority of them, even the whole of mankind.

Indeed, the Prot culture distinguishing view of man is his sameness with all other men - that is, his human nature. By contrast, what distinguishes man in a Cath culture is a combination of particularities and accidents of character which resulted from birth or evolved during the course of his life - that is, his personality. In a Prot culture all men are equal in their human nature; in a Cath society all men are different in their personalities. The sameness of all men, as viewed through the lenses of Prot culture, makes each man easily replaceable in society, in the factory, even in the family. The uniqueness of man in the Cath culture makes each man irreplaceable in all spheres of life. Individual human life is thus less valued in a Prot society than in a Cath one.

If the capacity to think in abstract terms confers to the people of Prot societies the potential to become great scientists and in this way benefit greatly the whole of humanity, it is also true that this very same capacity of abstract thinking becomes a very dangerous entreprise when applied to the affairs of men and society. For it is such capacity that also confers to them the potential to become the great ideologues and the great killers of humanity.