Manichaeism - Figurative Use

Figurative Use

The terms "Manichaean" and "Manichaeism" are sometimes used figuratively as a synonym of the more general term "dualist" with respect to a philosophy or outlook. They are often used to suggest with a somewhat disparaging undertone that the world view in question simplistically reduces the world to a struggle between Good and Evil. For example, Jean-Paul Sartre in the essay Anti-Semite and Jew referred to the Anti-Semitic world view as "a form of Manichaeism", since "it explains the course of the world by the struggle of the principle of Good with the principle of Evil" (the "principle of Evil" being equated, by an Anti-Semitic person, with the Jews). Similarly, Zbigniew Brzezinski used the phrase "Manichaean paranoia" in reference to U.S. President George W. Bush's world view (in the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, March 14, 2007); Brzezinski elaborated that he meant "the notion that he (Bush) is leading the forces of good against the empire of evil".