The Virtue of Simplicity

 

The Virtue of Simplicity

Peter Schultz

 

                  Adam Hochschild has written an excellent book, King Leopold’s Ghost, which has one flaw. He wants to blame what happened in the Congo under King Leopold of Belgium on a particular kind of politics. At one point, he says “The Congo offers a striking example of the politics of forgetting. Leopold … went to extraordinary lengths to try to erase potentially incriminating evidence for the historical record.” [p. 294] At another point, he wrote that “One reason I wrote this book was to show how profoundly European colonialism has shaped the world we live in.” [318]

 

                  Hochschild is aware he is simplifying history: “it is wrong to blame the problems of today’s Africa entirely on colonialism.” [318] Other phenomena have been important, for example, the status of women, “the deep-seated cultural tolerance and even hero-worship of strongmen like Mobutu,” as well as “the long history of indigenous slavery [that’s] still deeply and disastrously woven into the African social fabric.” [318]

 

                  But while Hochschild criticizes simplicity, it may be that more simplicity, not less, would be illuminating. It is not particular kinds of politics, either a politics of forgetting or the politics of colonialism, that are to blame. Rather, it is politics simply. Focusing on particular kinds of politics as root causes of inhuman consequences in Africa obscures or “disappears” the political itself as the root cause. And just as it is incorrect to think that any particular kind of politics has caused Africa’s problems, so too it is incorrect to think that there is a particular kind of politics that can solve those problems. The political is inseparable from imperialism, slavery, and war, which is reflected by the facts that “The rebel militias, the Congo’s African neighbors, and many of their corporate allies have little interest in ending the country’s Balkanization.” [317] Nor should we be surprised insofar as “For western Europe to move from the Holy Roman Empire … to its current patchwork of nations took centuries of bloodshed, including the Thirty Years War, whose anarchic multisidedness and array of plundering outsiders remind one of the Congo today.” [318] Centuries of bloodshed which, of course, continue today and not only in the Congo or in Africa but that occur among the “current patchwork of nations” world-wide.

 

                  That we readily speak of “political problems” does not mean that we should assume there are “political solutions” for those problems, any more than because we speak of “moral problems” we should assume there are “moral solutions.” Centuries of bloodshed should alert us to the naivete of such thinking.

The Road to War: Honor

 

The Road to War: Honor

Peter Schultz

 

                  The road to war, politically speaking, is paved with good, i.e., honorable intentions. Hence, making war is so much more popular than making peace or avoiding war. It is the nature of the political.

 

                  In his book, What’s the Matter with Kansas, Thomas Frank offered an assessment of conservative voters in Kansas that led to the conclusion that those voters had voted against their own self-interests. Hence, they had voted irrationally, implying that they and the conservative movement were beyond rational appeals and hopelessly askew politically.

 

                  But that these voters were not voting irrationally is evident when it is recognized that, politically speaking, “means” often become or are “ends.” Those voters perceived themselves as voting honorably, as voting for “the honorable” as opposed to and even at the expense of their self-interests. So, they had demonstrated their virtue(s), their patriotism, their good citizenship in that they preferred the common good to their self-interests. As such, voting is not simply a means to advance one’s self-interest; it is an end in itself, a demonstration of one’s virtue(s), political and otherwise.

 

                  This is a reminder that honor is a commodity that easily trumps self-interest politically. Self-interest may dictate abandoning losing causes, like wars, but honor does not. In fact, honor dictates persisting even in losing causes, including wars, because such persistence demonstrates one’s virtue(s). Appeasement based on calculation can always be made to seem dishonorable. Which is why making war is so much more popular than making peace via appeasement.

 

                  When trying to get the United States out of Vietnam, JFK used statistics, duplicitously as it turned out, to persuade people that it was in the interests of the United States to get out or stay out of Vietnam militarily. Apparently, JFK knew that his statistics gave an inaccurate picture of the military and political situations in Vietnam. And as it turned out to be the case, Kennedy’s prospects of keeping the US out of Vietnam dimmed considerably.

 

                  Additionally, though, in arguing as he did in favor of what he said was statistically validated “progress,” JFK had, implicitly, embraced the war’s legitimacy, that it was an honorable war. If opposing communism was honorable, as almost all Americans thought then, the war was honorable. So even if it were not going well and even if South Vietnam itself was not essential to the national security of the United States, the war itself, as opposed to its possible outcomes, was honorable. To oppose the war would be to act dishonorably. And were a president to act so dishonorably, unconscionable consequences might be forthcoming.

Thought Experiment: Killing JFK

 

Thought Experiment: Killing JFK

Peter Schultz

 

                  Why was it necessary to assassinate JFK? That is, “necessary” for national security reasons?

 

JFK was committed to abandoning South Vietnam, which would have compromised US national security – not because the existence of South Vietnam itself fortified US national security. But because US war-making fortified US national security and did so even though South Vietnam would not survive. This is what Nixon understood and why he felt justified in extending the war for the duration of his first term, to achieve “peace with honor.” Continuing the war was crucial to US national security because it was what US “honor” required. To cut and run would have been “dishonorable,” thereby compromising US national security.

 

                  “US national security” was/is a euphemism for “US honor.” It was honorable to continue the war, no matter how badly it was going and dishonorable not to do so. Doing the honorable thing, even though futilely destructive, was politically requisite. Honor is a political virtue even when it leads destruction and death in what seem to be futile causes.  And dishonor is a political vice even when it leads to peace because it is “appeasement.” In politics, means are just as important ends. This is one reason why politics is so violent and deadly.

 

                  Making war always appears honorable, while appeasement always appears dishonorable. And presidents are constitutionally inclined toward acting honorably because the office itself privileges the honorable just as much as monarchies privilege honor. Because JFK was prepared to act dishonorably, he was compromising the presidency itself. Such a compromise would undermine US national security, which depends upon, as everyone knows, there being strong presidents, i.e., powerfully acting presidents. The honorable act powerfully, not timidly. They do not appease; they make war. Insofar as JFK was unwilling to do that, he was compromising US national security. Hence, his removal was necessary.

A Few Reflections on Aristotle and the Political

 

A Few Reflections on Aristotle and the Political

Peter Schultz

 

                  Some views on Aristotle: “Moreover, he thought that such knowledge [of human actions] is the necessary prerequisite for politics because politics has as its end the making of virtuous citizens.”

 

                  “For Aristotle, the science of politics was the architectonic science, the master science, because its end, the good for man, is employed in directing political affairs and is ultimately directed at the education of citizens…. Nevertheless, it is not sufficient merely to live. Man must live well, that is, live as a human moral agent. As the science of human action, political science enables man to fulfill this aspiration.”

 

                  So: Humans aspire to live well; that is, to live as “human moral agents.” To fulfill this aspiration, humans turn to political science, to politics because “politics has as its end the making of virtuous citizens.”

 

                  And, of course, this assumes that “virtuous citizens” are “human moral agents.” But Aristotle explicitly denies this identification when he asserts that a good person is virtually always distinguishable from a good citizen or that it is almost never the case that a good citizen is also a good person. Being either a good person or a good citizen seems to be a choice humans have to make. Does political science as the architectonic science, the master science illuminate that choice? Or does political science so understood obscure the necessity of making that choice? It could be that understanding politics as architectonic, as commanding is in fact not illuminating, but blinding. And it is a blindness that often leads to fanaticism, the fanaticism of living well as “human moral agents.” Extremism in the defense of virtue is no vice.

 

                  So: What was Aristotle doing? Could it be that he was – as he did with regard to slavery or to the origin of the polis – laying out the conventional wisdom, the citizen’s or the political wisdom in order to expose its flaws? As some have argued, Aristotle does adopt the conventional or citizen’s view of politics, but he does so to expose it, and not to endorse, embrace, or affirm it.

Nate Turner and the Political

 

Nate Turner and the Political

Peter Schultz

 

                  The following is from Mark Ames’ book, Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion.

 

                  “The fact that Nate Turner [was] … delusional does not disqualify the inherent political nature of his rebellion.” [p. 57]

 

                  Exactly. Turner, , although being delusional, was being political, just like those who were hunting Turner. Those who “go postal,” like those who cause them to go postal, are similarly political and delusional. As Ames points out, those “going postal” are acting politically, i.e., delusionally, just as are those they are acting against, who are also acting politically.

 

                  Turner, e.g., went postal, thereby acting politically, which is to say delusionally, just like the “white vigilante group [that] terrorized the region’s blacks, killing hundreds….” [57] As Ames emphasized, the white vigilante group “foreshadowed the rise of the KKK … years later.” This illuminates the character of the political, of being political, of affirming the political. Being political seems indistinguishable from being delusional. And isn’t it pretty obvious that delusions are what excite or incite humans to be political, e.g., waging war and killing one’s enemies?

 

                  So: the political are the delusional. Or: the political is delusional. So, it is not simply that delusional humans corrupt the political, although of course that can happen. It is that the political and the delusional are inseparable, that we political animals are, by virtue of being political, delusional.

The Narcissism of the Political

 

The Narcissism of the Political

Peter Schultz

 

                  “Vanity and the desire to dominate other(s) are passions that arise…in society,” according to Montesquieu, ala’ Thomas Pangle.

 

                  Which means that vanity and dominance are the political passions par excellence and are made socially acceptable via politics. That is, it is via the political that humans motivated by vanity and a desire to dominate others can have their narcissism made acceptable and even honored. Those who are characterized by vanity and dominance lust for fame, which is a kind of immortality. Hence, as Lincoln pointed out in his “Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” lyceum address, for the most ambitious politicians, it is immaterial whether they enslave freemen or free slaves. Their acts disguise and socially legitimize the passions that underlie them, vanity and the desire for dominance. Such narcissism lies at the root of the political, in its meanness and in its greatness.

 

                  To say that the best regime is the least pathological regime is to say there is no political solution to human problems. There are no simply good options and there is nothing that can be done about that. The fate of the nuclear strategists reveals this truth. The “MAD-ness” of the nuclear age clarifies all ages. Human problems cannot be solved politically, militarily, or morally. Hence, it helps tremendously to have a sense of humor, as that allows you to see the human drama for the comedy it is. Ironically, the most serious matters are best treated humorously or light heartedly. Hence, the value of seeing the irony of Plato’s Republic, of Aristotle’s Politics, and of Machiavelli’s The Prince and his Discourses, as well as his Mandragola. It will lighten your load.