Possessing a political term does not make one a practitioner of it

Evidence

Marsafi’s own purpose was to interpret the ‘real meaning’ (haqiqa) of every word he treated, and from there to see that meaning ‘realised’ (haqqaqa, tahaqqaqa) in political life. The political world was not a posited object, independent of written language. Words were not labels that simply named and represented political ideas or objects, but interpretations whose force was to be made real. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 430 (#expands, via linked claim)

The tremendous power of persuasion inherent in the main ideologies of our times is not accidental. Persuasion is not possible without appeal to either experiences or desires, in other words to immediate political needs. Plausibility in these matters comes neither from scientific facts, as the various brands of Darwinists would like us to believe, nor from historical laws, as the historians pretend, in their efforts to discover the law according to which civilizations rise and fall. Every full-fledged ideology has been created, continued and improved as a political weapon and not as a theoretical doctrine. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 433 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Liberatory struggle requires claiming theory as practice, not merely critiquing misuse; Ideological elements carry no fixed political meaning by themselves — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 737; Words do not label pre-existing political objects but must be made real through interpretation — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 430 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Words do not label pre-existing political objects but must be made real through interpretation #expands (0.78) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 430
• Ideological elements carry no fixed political meaning by themselves #expands (0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 737
• Ideologies are crafted as political weapons, not theories #corroborates (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 433
• The people is constituted politically, not given sociologically. #expands (0.72) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 443