In his contribution ‘Ideology is dead! Long live ideology!’ (May 23), my friend, Alan Xuereb generously mentioned yours truly as a “self-decla
There is a sort of stigma around the word ‘ideology’. It is mostly perhaps because it is wrongly associated with past political dogmas which many believe have been outshone by something else. Not quite clear by what.
Preliminarily, ideology is understood here as a theoretical system of ideals that translates into a political narrative.
In Malta, as well, the age of ideology appears to have come to an end. Many want to be à la mode and, thus, decided to do away with this concept. However, a few bulwarks of ideology still remain on our beloved rock. Ironically, they are both called Mark.
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 375BC, concerning justice, the order and nature of the just city state and the just man. It is Plato’s best-known work and has proven to be one of the world’s most influential works of philosophy and political theory.
In the dialogue, Socrates talks with various Athenians and foreigners about the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man. They consider the natures of existing regimes and then propose a series of different, hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis, a utopian city state ruled by a philosopher king.
A year or so ago, there were persistent reports that the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) was going to change its name into Partit Nazzjonali tal-Poplu (National People’s Party). The reasons commentators were putting forward were that, in this day and age, the term ‘nationalist’ had negative far-right connotations.
That event did not materialise. With the benefit of hindsight, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that the change did not happen, since, a few months later, a new party was formed – branded as the Partit Popolari (Popular Party). According to media reports this party is a far-right party.
Nonetheless, many still have issues with the term ‘nationalist’ as this is perceived as portraying a rightist agenda. I will not go into the merits of how the Maltese voter thinks, I have done that elsewhere. What I would like to dwell on instead is what the term ‘nationalist’ might mean nowadays, in Malta.
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