Manichaeism is a religious philosophy postulated by the Persian prophet Mani, also known as Manes or Manichaeus (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 Maniqueu has lost strength, but a new meaning has been attributed to his thinking and appropriated by the common use of language.
Manichaeism has become a pejorative term, related to a simplistic thinking 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 oneself accompany Manichaean thinking and present themselves as characteristics present also in ethnocentrism .
Saint Augustine and Manichaeism
Scholars claim that one of the greatest Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages, Augustine of Hippo or St. Augustine (354-430), in his youth was a follower of the religion proposed by the prophet Mani.
In Manichaeism, Saint Augustine believed he could find answers to his need to unite reason with belief. The dualism (good and bad) proposed by Manichaeism seemed like a way out.
However, throughout his studies, Saint Augustine abandoned Manichaeism because of the contradictions he encountered. Above all, by the vision of God and the idea of having evil as one of the principles.
For Saint Augustine, evil is only the absence of good, it does not have its own existence. So, like darkness, which is just the absence of light.
The philosopher definitively assumed the Christian religion and started to find in another dualism, that of Plato and his relationship between the soul and the body, the rational basis for the development of his thought.
Manichaeism as a source of prejudice
One of the great problems of a Manichaean 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.
The generalizations that underlie prejudices can also generate discrimination against individuals and groups. The view of the other as wrong tends to impose standards of conduct and the standardization of ways of life.
The “demonization” of the other tends to be a mark of prejudiced thinking based on a Manichean view of the world.
Manichaeism in Politics
Manichaeism is very present in political debates that tend to polarize. In this context, political opponents abandon the complexity of their relationships and the diverse political theories. Thus, the policy is reduced to a simplistic clash between right and wrong.
The different currents in a polarized political scenario take your proposal as the correct one. Often, they relate their ideology to 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 speech is just as important as listening.
Manichaeism, which turns political opponents into enemies, prevents the debate and conflict between different ideas, necessary for democracy.