“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
Oscar Wilde
The Idea is a concept that is quite unique. It is like a plague without a vaccine, an ill without a cure. Once an idea is born, the only way it can die is with the death of all those who know about it. One cannot erase an idea – for to do so involves getting people who know about it to attack those who believe in it.
Philosophical nonsense, maybe, but ideas are one of the examples of philosophy impacting on our world and our history. Ideas across the ages have shaped what we know today as History. Had Einstein, or Newton, or Mendeleev had not had the ideas that made them great scientists and mathematicians, then our world would be nothing compared to what it is. Had Henry Bessemer not had the idea that created molten steel, then Ford would not have pioneered the car. Ideas create a snowball effect, and light beacons that spread across humanity.
In history, the Idea has been the downfall of many great men and women. Mary I of England failed in her attempt to return England to Catholicism, and is branded one of the most notorious executioners of the Early Modern Period. This would not have happened if not for the propaganda machine that Protestants brilliantly controlled, pumping out books like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and martyrdoms like that of Archbishop Cranmer. These Protestants, rife across the mercantile classes of England, were fostered by Mary’s own father, Henry VIII, who turned to Protestantism not out of belief, but as a political chess move to secure his dynasty. It was this reformist idea, publicised by men like Erasmus, Martin Luther, Thomas Cromwell and Huldrych Zwingli that brought another idea – Catholicism – to its knees.
Slavery, we are fortunate to note, is now considered one of the greatest inhumanities possible. Four hundred years ago, slavery was nothing more than an unfortunate consequence of being on the losing side of a tribal war, or being neck deep in debt. This radical change in opinion has been cultivated over the centuries with the birth of an idea. The Anti-Slavery Society coordinated by William Wilberforce brought this new unique idea of equality into the fray, and the cogs of the propaganda machine once again began to whir. China bearing anti-slavery cartoons sat on mantelpieces. Books spread an anti-slavery message, and once more, an Idea brought an antique view to its knees.
The history of ideas is one exclusive to our species. Our love of progress and learning created and developed language, writing, mathematics, the sciences, medicine, politics and law. When Rosa Parks refused to move for a white man, a spark was ignited that would never be put out. The Montgomery Bus Boycott still resonates among the world as a demonstration of equality and diversity today.
In this digital age, as ideas spread across the world in seconds from one phone to the next, it is even more vital than ever that we understand the strength contained in beliefs and opinions. Beliefs all too quickly become facts, and it is our duty to ourselves and our fellow humans that we give way to the opinion that more than one belief can coexist with one another. We can believe in the nationalisation of the railways, and others can believe in the privatisation of them, and it is the obligation of no one to tell the other that they are definitively wrong. We can believe in unity and isolationism, and neither is objectively right nor wrong. As propaganda spreads thick and fast, our own humanity relies on our ability to not allow the Propaganda Machine to dictate our world. The Propaganda Machine opens, and then never shuts. Once an idea is born, it will not die. A Pandora’s Box, if you will.
The History Book 