Manichaeism is a religious philosophy postulated by the Persian prophet Mani, also known as Manes or Manichaean (c. 216-276).
It consists of a conception of the world based on a basic duality between irreconcilable opposites: light and darkness; good and bad.
Throughout history, the religious philosophy proposed by Manicheus has lost strength, but a new meaning has been attributed to his thought and appropriated by the common use of language.
Manichaeism has become a pejorative term, referring to a simplistic thought that tends to reduce issues to mere relations between opposites.
Manichaeism and Common Sense
When affirming that a thought is Manichean, one tends to say that it does not take into account the complexity of the agents involved and seeks to reduce everything to a relationship between good and evil, right and wrong.
The "demonization" of the other and the "sanctification" of the self accompany Manichean thought and present themselves as characteristics present also in the ethnocentrism.
St. Augustine and Manichaeism
Scholars claim that one of the greatest Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages, Augustine of Hippo or Saint Augustine (354-430), in his youth he was a follower of the religion proposed by the prophet Mani.
In Manicheism, St. Augustine believed that he could find answers to his need to unite reason with belief. The dualism (good and bad) proposed by Manicheism seemed to him a way out.
However, throughout his studies, St. Augustine abandoned Manichaeism because of the contradictions he encountered. Above all, because of the vision of God and the idea of having evil as one of the principles.
For St. Augustine, evil is just the absence of good, it does not have an existence of its own. Just like darkness, which is just the absence of light.
The philosopher definitively assumed the Christian religion and found it in another dualism, that of Plato and his relationship between soul and body, the rational basis for the development of his thinking.
Manichaeism as a Source of Prejudice
One of the great problems of a Manichean interpretation is that associated with an ethnocentric view, which takes itself and its conceptions as a standard, it tends to consider everything that is different as evil.
Generalizations that underlie prejudice can also lead to discrimination against individuals and groups. The view of the other as wrong tends to impose standards of behavior and the uniformity of ways of life.
The "demonization" of the other tends to be a mark of prejudiced thinking based on a Manichean worldview.
Manichaeism in Politics
Manichaeism is very present in political debates that tend towards polarization. In this context, political opponents abandon the complexity of their relationships and diverse political theories. As such, politics is reduced to a simplistic clash between right and wrong.
Different currents in a polarized political scenario take your proposal as the correct one. They often relate their ideology to the good, and consequently, other theories and political personalities are identified as wrong or evil.
This perspective hurts the principles that support democracy from its Greek ideal. Democracy is built through the clash of ideas where speaking is as important as listening.
Manichaeism, which turns political opponents into enemies, prevents debate and conflict between different ideas, necessary for democracy.
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