A Small History of Ideas

Should we have a limit for aloof quotations?

Since of their release moment, ideas can be appropriated by others, either politely or on the
sly. Nevertheless, they cannot be integrally understood, intentionally or not being
misrepresented or misachieved. With this first observations under our point of view, it will be
questioned the limit and possible solutions to an optimum achievement of someone else’s
ideas. There will also be facts and examples from contemporary times.

Examining some factors about the property of ideas, we can mention, for example, the first
sentence of Machadian classic “Esau and Jacob”. Maybe the author would like to refer to the
appropriation of aloof ideas by pretentious intellectuals. It can be confirmed right ahead, when
the narrator says that another person repeated the phrase, until many people made it theirs.
This erudition exercise is not something bad if made moderately. It is, in fact, a way to make
the own ideas perfect. Or it is a way to present a new fact with a solid foundation, and from
trustworthy sources.

Concerning to the process of appropriation of aloof ideas, Machado explains, in his way, the
process in the second paragraph of the excerpt. “They are born modestly” in the moment
when the emitter does not have intentions to change its living environment. However,
depending on its re-percussion, the less they think, the more they rule the world. They can
influence an entire generation. An example can be the current world’s greatest religions or the
technologies used by a large amount of global citizens. They unpretentiously surged, and
earned more and more followers as time went by.

The metaphor of the mother who does not care of the precedence of her son’s quotes
perfectly synthetizes the political usability of this theme. Sometimes the creator of the phrase
can be differently oriented of those one who appropriate from the ideas. In addition of the
examples mentioned above, there are ideological wars. The most used ideology for
contemporary wars is undoubtedly the Marxist Socialism. With its theories of clash between
classes and egalitarianism, it perfectly fits on speeches of leaders and revolutionary groups.
They can be masked into either religion or democratic totalitarian regimes, associated to other
knowledge fields and usually take to wars and conflicts, local or globally.

It’s also valid to come out that the correct or incorrect usage of ideas is exclusively up to the
emitter. It is usually impossible, therefore, no one can do value judgements about the
assertiveness of the receiver when settling with the emitter’s ideas. It is the risk to infer and
think deductively. We arrive to our conclusions, base ourselves exclusively in them and create
an idea based in inferences. It’s a passive exercise exhaustively done for modern times
thinkers.

Is this ideas appropriation noxious to the development of global society? Seemingly not, but if
we examine all political facts from the last 7 years, it’s important to point out some
observations. Ideas appropriation with the greatest intention to save the world is risible and
unworthy to be taken seriously. Write a thousand pages’ treaty or utter a speech prophetically,
things that have been abundantly seen recently, are excellent to cause polemic and create cult
of personality. Without a bare and empirical observation, everything becomes a relaunch of
old-fashioned ideas.
To finish, it’s fundamentally important to comprehend that the ideas appropriation is
producing when inducts someone else to be proactive and to contribute to a free and
individualized society. The exercise of copying and repetition theories that failed will not
contribute to an intellectual evolution of a generation that was born condemned to failure.
The contesting and contraposition to the already consecrated ideas for the intelligentsia and
for the common sense transformed weeds in seeds of leafy and fruitful trees and will give the
privilege for the next generations to experiment a world free from the binding of doctrination.