Political Illusions

 

Political Illusions

Peter Schultz

 

                  An interesting book by Bruce Miroff, is his Pragmatic Illusions: The Presidential Politics of John F. Kennedy. Miroff writes of Kennedy’s apocalyptic rhetoric and its meaning as follows:

 

                  “… Kennedy’s orientation toward crises – amounting to almost a sub rosa yearning for them – reflected the poverty of his pragmatic liberalism. Kennedy clearly wanted greatness, wanted the accolades of both the present and the future.” [66-67]

 

                  Now, substitute for the phrase “pragmatic liberalism,” “politics” or “the political” and note what emerges: It is not only “pragmatic liberalism” that is characterized by poverty but, more generally, it is politics itself. Political life is poor, offering little to human beings.

 

                  Hence, “the desire for greatness.” “Heroic action in moments of crises” is all or the most that the political can offer. Otherwise, the political offers human beings very little of value; it is poor because greatness was not to be acquired “in the task of changing society,” that is, in the ordinary course of political events. Greatness was to be harvested only by way of “apocalyptic” moments or events, e.g., a great civil war or a worldwide war on terror and evil.

 

                  Ironically, the desire for political greatness, for fame, for a kind of immortality reflects the emptiness, the poverty of political life generally speaking. As Lincoln indicated in his oration on “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” a seat in the Congress or even the presidency itself would prove to be unsatisfying, generally speaking. Ordinary political life, that is, doesn’t offer human beings much of value. Political life is, in that regard, valueless. Which is probably why it is touted as much as it is as a pinnacle of success and accomplishment.