Rebuilding Liberalism by Guy Stanley

Author:Guy Stanley [Stanley, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2019-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

AUTHENTICITY TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER CIVITAS

At the basis of the welfare state as liberals conceived it lay an explicit model of the development of human consciousness, namely, that advanced by Hegel. According to this model — repeated in Bosanquet’s treatment of the modern state at the same time as Fabian socialism was gaining ground in Britain62 — the human mind expands to embrace the other in a dialectical progression from self to other, from we to us, from us to all of us, until mankind develops a generally held self-consciousness about its interdependence and interconnectedness. At this stage the human consciousness will be able to organize the world for the creation of freedom and justice for all.63 Hegel recognizes, however, that the real obstacle to this is vanity and selfishness, which can arise at particular moments along this trajectory.

At such points the dialectical process breaks down and instead of expanding, human interpersonal understanding stops, entranced narcissistically by its own self-image. When that occurs, political self-realization stops in that polity, and the owl of Minerva moves on as dusk settles over that community. Hegel’s historical progress has hit a wall — namely, the corruption of the state, to use an old-fashioned term.

In the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century meaning of the term, “corruption” is not about illicit conflicts of interest or bribes or payoffs. It is about spoilage, as if a basket of fruit has turned rotten or a pitcher of milk has soured. Corruption of the state is more about the pitcher than the milk, the basket rather than the fruit. It is a transformation of what Montesquieu called the operating rules of the state. The incentives for doing what should be done corrode and become inoperative.

Perhaps it could have been avoided if, around the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the ’60s, Western society had accepted the fact that its affluence had reached sufficiency and the economic emphasis should shift from private gratification to the improvement of public spaces and the restoration of “public man.”64 Examples are shortening the working week and improving the situation of the volunteer sector. Suppose governments had at that point recognized the need to build greater scope for civitas — the Roman idea of civic spirit65 — a key ingredient of public life missing from utilitarian hedonistic philosophy. But that was not to be, although it was a near miss.66

Under President John F. Kennedy America started its journey to the moon, an achievement that generated considerable national pride. The energy of the civil rights movement cried out to be channelled into building a state that offered more scope for public involvement. But the assassinations — of Kennedy, and then Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy — changed that. Perhaps if Moscow had allowed the Prague Spring to succeed instead of crushing it and all hope of reform with it …

Still, despite these things, powerful forces continued to press for the social renovation of the West and greater social justice in the United States. The

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