"Ideology as a Means of Rule
If ideology as thus defined is to be accessible to the grasp of understanding, it cannot be left in this half light [between the passive reflection of living processes, the pragmatic invention of ends, and scientific axioms]. As we shall discover, this lies in its pragmatic tendency. Ends are invented. This may be seen above all in the fact that wherever an ideology enters normative spheres like science, law, and ethics, it robs the norms of their authoritarian position and turns them into mere means for attaining certain ends and serving certain 'interests.' The pragmatic purpose of ideologies is beyond question. Our concern, then, is not so much to assert this fact as to inquire concerning the degree to which this pragmatic tendency works in opposition to such non-material norms as the true, the righteous, or the good, actually swallowing them up....
Hence ideologies are subject, not to the truth, but to the end which they serve. They are variable, not merely in the sense that they change in accordance with the material substructure on which they depend, but also in the sense that they change with changing ends. As means of actualization, ideologies are controlled by men, whereas truth controls men. The consequence is that the statements made in ideologies are not shaped by the truth even if they resemble truth. The form of their statements is wholly an expression of the will to power, in Nietsche's sense. By appearing to pronounce truths, while in fact proclaiming a program, they supply an intellectual alibi for the exercise of a collective will to power.
The norm of the good is similarly swallowed up by the ends sought. In this connection one may draw upon illustrations from quite different sources, such as the sayings: "God is whatever serves my country," or: "My country, right or wrong." Or one may think of the demand of Machiavelli that in practical politics the good not be made the ideal, but that ethical phrases be used only in order to establish the moral credit which will be useful in achieving political ends."
Thielicke, Helmut. (1969). Theological Ethics, v. 2: Politics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, p. 35-36.
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Up to my time in Vienna I was very good about keeping in touch with friends I met in various places under various circumstances. My friend in Minneapolis (with whom I stayed when I did the literature review I've discussed in this blog) and I for several years put out a newsletter so that everyone from the summer mission trip in Europe could keep in touch with one another. Among those summer co-workers was a German teacher from Omaha. Before the mission asked me to increase the amount I was raising for my support I thought I'd be in Vienna around February 1987. So when this friend and I agreed she could bring her junior high students to me we didn't know that I would be arriving in Vienna just a month before she and her students. Also, I didn't know what my living arrangements exactly would be and when I found I was going to be in a studio apartment I had to find someone else to house the male students. So I recruited the other missionary who went to the Austrian church I was going to.
(Also, as an aside, this means I must have started going there before this, because my relationship with this other worker was founded a lot on us going to the same church, since otherwise we worked in completely different aspects of the ministry and I wouldn't have gotten to know him much otherwise. So this means that I was probably attending the Austrian church by July 11 - two weeks prior to the students coming.)
So there I was, barely settled in myself, when all of a sudden I'm actually hosting a group of junior high students! I'm sure the mission was very unhappy about this, which would account for the timing of how they treated me later on, too, because I was in the States again when this same friend came back to town and people from the mission let her in the apartment. That is, if I had been there my friend might have become privy to what was going on there - how the mission was treating me - and she would have been a credible witness.
My friend and her kids were in Vienna from July 23 to July 25. My friend had already planned out things for them to do during the day, but my colleague, who housed the male students, and I did things like take them places for authentic (cheap) Austrian food. I remember fixing breakfast for the girls, muffins and the like. Since I just had a studio apartment there wasn't a lot of room and at night the floor was literally covered with sleeping bags, so that you'd think that it was a slumber party or something. It was cozy but I think it worked out okay. My colleague was the one who suggested where to eat and otherwise helped with logistical information more than I did because even thought I could get to Ikea by myself I didn't really know the city that well yet and he had lived there for a few years by then.
In the top picture I'm on the far left in front and my colleague is the one in the far back wearing a striped shirt and glasses. In the lower picture my friend is on the far right. The last I knew she had married a German professor and moved to the Carolinas or somewhere in there. After my Vienna years I began losing touch with a lot of my former friends because it was hard to explain what I'd been through and it was hard to relate to old friends in the same way any more. So she was one of those casualties. I think I tried to explain to her about my not being there when she came by the second time, but I don't remember what I told her and it took too much effort to try to make people understand, especially when I was so confused about it myself even. So we just sort of lost touch.
