What the credit crisis has proven to us is that ideology is bullshit. People who stubbornly cling to romantic notions of free markets are a danger to mankind. Objectivity, realism, rationalism, pragmatism, and plain old common sense: these are the things that are worth a damn.
Stop waiting till you've figured out how your particular "religion" tells you that you should respond. Just respond. Keep your beliefs updated as you learn new data. Never become closed to new possibilities. If we had people in leadership who were more interested in responding, in the most effective manner, to the immediate conditions on the ground, than in using every new crisis to vindicate, advance, or test their pet ideological dogma, we'd all be a lot better off.
The free market zealots started this bullshit with extremist deregulation. Then, when it all came crumbling down, they resisted acting in a timely fashion out of fear of capitulating to what they perceived as socialistic principles. Well, sometimes the label is less important than the result. Had they been a little more accommodating all along, and thrown socialistic principles an occasional bone, they would not have been brought to their free market knees.
In the end, they were forced to act, and in a way that is most antithetical to their dogma. If they had been less interested in faith-based economics and more interested in learning from the market as it evolved, they would have been willing to accept a healthier balance between freedom and regulation - more modest growth, with more stability, less volatility, and less ultimate calamity.
Bottom line? Idealogues are no better than religious fundamentalists. They differ only in the flavor of how they imperil mankind.