The “world does not end, the blue bird does not return, love does not reveal itself in all of its profound tenderness and charity, and death and mourning and crying and pain do not disappear.”  

- Yuri Slezkine, quoted by Joshua Yaffa in  Russia’s House of Shadows,  October 16, 2017 Issue of The New Yorker

A Recipe for Disaster:

  1. Utopian Vision 
  2. Exaggerate the Bad in Current World
  3. Downplay the Good in Current World
  4. Moral Outrage
  5. Army of Convictions about What Is and Ought to Be
  6. Categorical Thinking
  7. Blank Slate Assumption
  8. Belief in Radical Transformation: New Human/New Society!
  9. Historical Process as Inevitable (but needs to be helped along)
  10. Dismissive of Alternative Viewpoints or Solutions
  11. Demonized Outgroups
  12. Intense Expectation 
  13. Dashed Hopes
  14. Unwillingness to Change Assumptions/Admit Error of Core Theory
  15. Increased Vigilance
  16. Stress on Unity/Purity
  17. Scapegoating
  18. Intensifying Suspicion -> Paranoia  
  19. Rationalization of Violence (glorious future justifies sacrifice of human impediments)
  20. Strong centralized control to implement the Vision and coerce compliance

And thus we have the human tragedy.

This is not an argument against ideology. Ideals, grand narratives, and stubborn persistence can all feed the engine of positive change. What tips ideology into a force for awful is the concentration of power and silencing of other voices.