Titus Pullo

... has had the biggest influence in shaping your ideology?

anyone. What philosopher/economist/whatever has had the biggest influence in your current way of thinking about politics and what in their message persuaded you?

DarrylS

Many influences, growing up in the age of Dwight D, JFK, RFK, MLK, Viet Nam, Country Joe, Joan Baez and Jim Morrison to name some.. read all of Tom Dooley's books, all of MLK's books, but the one who had the greatest early influence was C. Wright Mills, "The Power Elite".. early on learned that this government thing is just a big mirage and even though there is the appearance that we are in charge, the industrialists, corporatists and military industrial complex are the shot callers... we are just pawns in the game.

Many other influences the following immediately come to mind...
Dostoevsky, because I could in a time when "they" (proverbial) questioned anything coming out of the USSR.
Solzhenitsyn cointinuing fascination with the the Red Menace and quest to find out how things really were.
Marshall McLuhan; "All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values."
Tom Robbins; "When freedom is outlawed only outlaws will be free." which has been completely taken out of context and bastardized by the pro gun folks...
Also seem to remember reading a some of Hitler's stuff... Mein Kampf???

Prior to this age of overstimulation and constant barrage of media, was an avid reader.. but now seem to have gotten late onset ADD...

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Titus Pullo

so if we were to pin you down on one, perhaps Mills then? or another?

for me, it's Chris Hedges (theologian, seminary graduate, author)

"i am an enemy of fundamentalism... period."

his critique of gluttonous capitalism is the best speech I've ever heard.

CHRIS HEDGES: "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle"

DarrylS

That is difficult, as during the time when I was formulating many of my reality on how the world works there was tremendous disruption and a convergence of many influences... always thought of my politics as a compendium of ideas, rather than something that was hard and fast. To paint oneself as a liberal or a conservative, compromises your intellect as there is a whole lot more grey than black or white.

The greatest influence was probably not what I read, but what I experienced first in 1963 and then in 1968.. too much shyt happened those 5 years. But what I read and the music I listened to helped me make sense of the tremendous upheaval during that period of time...

Music is your only friend.. until the end.

__________________
"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Positive: John and Robert Kennedy. Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Theresa. Dalton Trumbo. Seneca. Golda Meir.

Negative: Hitler. Joe McCarthy. Robert Schuller. Dick Chaney. Sarah Palin.

PatriotsReign

Honest answer....

Nothing has influenced my ideology more than my own life experience. I'm not infering that my way is any better or worse than being influenced by other people...I'm just being open.

I used to hold some historical figures on a pedistal, but I no longer do that. I believe we're all messengers and that no one has the right view or perspective...we just have our own view.

If you asked me if MLK, JFK, Ronald Regean or Aristotle had a better perspective of truth than I do, I'd say "no, they did not". And I don't mean that smugly at all. It's a sincere belief that no man or woman on this earth has "The Message" or view of the truth.

Having said that, there are many people I've admired. I also have a weakness for great speeches, so people like JFK and MLK are high on that list for me.

TBradyOwnsYou

This may sound sarcastic, but it's not meant to be:
Han Solo.
I grew up on Star Wars, and it had a lot more influence on me than any figure I might have seen on TV once or read about in school.

reflexblue

A partial list

Jesus Christ

John Nash

Sigmund Freud

Plato

Socrates

Erwin Rommel

Winston Churchill

Muhammad Ali

Emanual Kant

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S.H.E.S.
I Likes Spikes.

Real World

None. I'm blinded by no one person, or belief.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

patsfan13

Can't name just 1, M Freidman, Sun Tzu, Tim Leary.

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