ABSTRACT
The ideas generated by a political movement that has passionate popular appeal may well outlive its creators, often becoming combined with related axioms. The passionate frame of mind that originally drove the ideology may have operated according to a paranoid process, but eventually these disturbed elements may disappear from view, whilst the axioms set in place live on. McCarthy sought to regulate the permissible views of American citizens, and the extreme right that followed him aimed to take ideological control of the country. The ideologies of reducing taxation and federal regulation at all costs proceeded the present generation, but by 2017 they had become axioms that predetermined their approach to many issues. There is a collective mourning currently endemic in Western cultures, and further afield, and this involves a loss of belief in cherished values and standards. When societies have been strongly identified with lost beliefs, this can cause a collective loss of sense of self.
