Most ideology ages in a fairly predictable fashion. What once prompted new lines of thought and inquiry becomes increasingly entrenched in convention, until the well worn ruts of orthodoxy inhibit and deflect new ideas and the reevaluation of old ones.

That which challenged, now conforms; that which confronted, now comforts. Worse yet, a guiding and supportive philosophy gradually contorts into a weapon against those outside its borders- the staff sharpens to scimitar, the crutch becomes cudgel.

Too often, the path to utopia ends littered with the corpse of charity and compassion, the map of righteous way obscures the people under foot in the journey. A representation of reality is infinity more lovable than the actual earth we traverse, why mar the trek by glancing about us?

In truth, such blinkering seems based less in malice than malaise; world weariness begs us to conserve whatever resources we can in hope of completing the sojourn intact. O course, there are those whose debased nature leads them to disregard the reality of others out of fear and rage; but even this seems understandable, if lamentable.

How best then to avoid the confines of a cadaverous ideology? Perhaps by a transfusion of new blood; an acceptance of intellectual donations without condemnation for a lack of purity. Yes, screen out infectious agents, but don't reject wholesale the life sustaining properties such a gift may offer. If ideology is a success, but a person dies, who exactly is being served?