A true knowledge of facts does not in itself, of course, lead to knowledge of ends. But false knowledge excludes the very possibility of it. The demolition of ideologies, as executed in Bell's work, cannot tell us where we ought to go, as Americans and twentieth-century men. But it does at least help us to keep up with ourselves. If anything, one can begin anew the discussion of utopia only by being aware of the trap of ideology.
Ideology makes it unnecessary for people to confront individual issues on their individual merits.
One simply turns to the ideological vending machine, and out comes the prepared formulae. And when these beliefs are suffused by apocalyptic fervor, ideas become weapons, and with dreadful results.