The Power of Political Theory
Each day humans wander earth and often ponder how one can even try to understand how the world therein functions. Many theoreticians have created bodies of text to explain how the world functions ranging from concepts such as the Big Bang Theory to even more contemporary theories such as the Higgs Boson Theory. However, more important than explaining how the universe came to be—in my opinion—is the understanding of how humans rationalize their current states both social and political. While offering nebulous ideas about how the universe operates provides some benefit, it is more beneficial to facilitate and participate in dialogue about issues that relate to humans more intimately (politics). As schisms between …show more content…
We often ascribe to a certain set of beliefs, ideologies if you will, that we no longer take the time out to critically analyze. We no longer take into account whether or not they are a mere distortion of reality or if it is truly the reality that exists. This phenomenon is perhaps best evidenced in our American political system where we observe, more than ever, the constant bickering and distortion tactics that our policymakers employ in order to accomplish their political aims. These “ideological illusions”, as Geuss calls them, then serve to “solidify the constant and unequal nature of power politics that currently exist” (Guess 53). In this instance, political theory can serve as a criticism to the distorted ideologies that exist and in the end, political theory ultimately helps us to breakdown to the ideological illusions that we consume. Through this, political theory helps us combat our own prejudiced biases and further our ability to make lasting change in the …show more content…
As Tully explains in his text, “[political theory] seeks to characterize the conditions of possibility of the problematic form of governance in a description that transforms the self understanding of those subject to and and struggling within it, enabling them to see its contingent conditions and the possibilities of governing themselves differently” (Tully 534). In this, Tully speaks to the intrinsic value of deconstructing political systems through a theoretical lens, in so far as these systems serve to facilitate oppressive and problematic forms of governance. By critically analyzing the forms of governance that we are subject to through the umbrella of political theory, we are in a better position to uncover to what extent political systems serve to actualize the ideals that governments have set forth in their respective creeds. Through employing this important function of political theory, we are no longer silencing those who are subject to sometimes extreme and broad sweeping ideas of governance. In this, we are continually dismantling the cemented power dynamics that only exists to entrench itself further. Through the power of political theory, we no longer complicit in entrenching the power structures within generally
Each day humans wander earth and often ponder how one can even try to understand how the world therein functions. Many theoreticians have created bodies of text to explain how the world functions ranging from concepts such as the Big Bang Theory to even more contemporary theories such as the Higgs Boson Theory. However, more important than explaining how the universe came to be—in my opinion—is the understanding of how humans rationalize their current states both social and political. While offering nebulous ideas about how the universe operates provides some benefit, it is more beneficial to facilitate and participate in dialogue about issues that relate to humans more intimately (politics). As schisms between …show more content…
We often ascribe to a certain set of beliefs, ideologies if you will, that we no longer take the time out to critically analyze. We no longer take into account whether or not they are a mere distortion of reality or if it is truly the reality that exists. This phenomenon is perhaps best evidenced in our American political system where we observe, more than ever, the constant bickering and distortion tactics that our policymakers employ in order to accomplish their political aims. These “ideological illusions”, as Geuss calls them, then serve to “solidify the constant and unequal nature of power politics that currently exist” (Guess 53). In this instance, political theory can serve as a criticism to the distorted ideologies that exist and in the end, political theory ultimately helps us to breakdown to the ideological illusions that we consume. Through this, political theory helps us combat our own prejudiced biases and further our ability to make lasting change in the …show more content…
As Tully explains in his text, “[political theory] seeks to characterize the conditions of possibility of the problematic form of governance in a description that transforms the self understanding of those subject to and and struggling within it, enabling them to see its contingent conditions and the possibilities of governing themselves differently” (Tully 534). In this, Tully speaks to the intrinsic value of deconstructing political systems through a theoretical lens, in so far as these systems serve to facilitate oppressive and problematic forms of governance. By critically analyzing the forms of governance that we are subject to through the umbrella of political theory, we are in a better position to uncover to what extent political systems serve to actualize the ideals that governments have set forth in their respective creeds. Through employing this important function of political theory, we are no longer silencing those who are subject to sometimes extreme and broad sweeping ideas of governance. In this, we are continually dismantling the cemented power dynamics that only exists to entrench itself further. Through the power of political theory, we no longer complicit in entrenching the power structures within generally