October 2010

Notes from Michael Oakeshott's "Political Education"

One of the most thoughtful and engaging conservative philosophers of the 20th century is Michael Oakeshott. I'm re-reading some of the essays from his famous work Rationalism in Politics. Here are my quote notes on the first essay I've read:

Oakeshott, Michael. “Political Education," Rationalism in Politics and other essays, Expanded Edition (Liberty Press, Indianapolis), 1991.

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[C]onsider Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government, read in America and in France in the eighteenth century as a statement of abstract principles to be put into practice, regarded there as a preface to political activity. But so far from being a preface, it has all the marks of a postscript. And its power to guide derived from its roots in actual political experience. (p. 53)

Freedom, like a recipe for game pie, is not a bright idea; it is not a ‘human right’ to be deduced from some speculative concept of human nature. The freedom which we enjoy is nothing more than arrangements, procedures of a certain kind: the freedom of an Englishman is not something exemplified in the procedure of habeas corpus, it is, at that point, the availability of that procedure. And the freedom which we wish to enjoy is not an ‘ideal’ which we premeditate independently of our political experience, it is what is already intimated in that experience. (p. 54)

[A]n ideology is an abbreviation of some manner of concrete activity. (p. 54)

On ideological politics: The complexities of the tradition which have been squeezed out in the process of abridgment are taken to be unimportant: the ‘rights of man’ are understood to exist insulated from a manner of attending to arrangements. And because, in practice, the abridgment is never by itself a sufficient guide, we are encouraged to fill it out, not with our suspect political experience, but with experience drawn from other (often irrelevant) concretely understood activities, such as war, the conduct of industry, or Trade Union negotiation. (p. 56)

The only cogent reason to be advanced for the technical ‘enfranchisement’ of women was that in all or most other important respects they had already been enfranchised. Arguments drawn from abstract natural right, from ‘justice,’ or from some general concept of feminine personality, must be regarded as either irrelevant, or as unfortunately disguised forms of the one valid argument; namely, that there was an incoherence in the arrangements of the society which pressed convincingly for remedy. (p 57)

[T]he abridgment itself never, in fact, provides the whole of the knowledge used in political activity. [p. 58]

Everything is temporary. Nevertheless, though a tradition of behaviour is flimsy and elusive, it is not without identity, and what makes it a possible object of knowledge is the fact that all its parts do not change at the same time and that the changes it undergoes are potential within it. Its principle is a principle of continuity: authority is diffused between past, present, and future; between the old, the new, and what is to come. It is steady because, though it moves, it is never wholly in motion; and though it is tranquil, it is never wholly at rest. (p. 61)

In political activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel; the sea is both friend and enemy; and the seamanship consists in using the resources of a traditional manner of behaviour in order to make a friend of every hostile occasion. (p. 61)

Everything is temporary, but nothing is arbitrary. (p. 62)

Though the [political] knowledge we seek is municipal, not universal, there is no shortcut to it. Moreover, political education is not merely a matter of coming to understand a tradition, it is learning how to participate in a conversation: it is at once initiation into an inheritance in which we have a life interest, and the exploration of its intimations. (p. 62)

Political philosophy cannot be expected to increase our ability to be successful in political activity. It will not help us to distinguish between good and bad political projects; it has no power to guide or to direct us in the enterprise of pursuing the intimations of our tradition… we may hope only to be less often cheated by ambiguous statement and irrelevant argument…. The more thoroughly we understand our own political tradition, the more readily its whole resources are available to us, the less likely we shall be to embrace the illusions which wait for the ignorant and the unwary: the illusion that in politics we can get on without a tradition of behaviour, the illusion that the abridgment of a tradition is itself a sufficient guide, and the illusion that in politics there is anywhere a safe harbour, a destination to be reached or even a detectable strand of progress. (pp. 65-66)

A Choice of Words

Here's an interesting exercise. Replace one word in the Vancouver Sun headline below, and ask how the meaning of the headline has changed. Let's replace "admits" with "argues". Such a change makes the revealed "truth" more a matter of debate and interpretation. Yet I'd argue that this is a reasonable change in wording, given that the article itself never says "admit", and that Angela Merkel has made a fairly dramatic, and probably strategic, change in her own position on German "multiculturalism".

Recognition of a Keynesian Moment

I rarely take a lead editorial from the Vancouver Sun seriously. This Canwest/Postmedia corporate entity is at the center of right-wing propaganda in BC, and is representative of the very conservative outlook from Canada's media generally.

Nevertheless, today's editorial provides a sobering analysis of the American economy and its implications for Canada. It's also a clear (though unstated) reminder that Keynesian economic theory still matters. The editorial admits that the gathering storm clouds of a double-dip American recession are a matter of demand - or lack thereof. There is no supply-side monetarism in the newspaper's argument, primarily because near-zero interest rates have not overcome the massive debts that spring from a consumer society which is also stunningly unequal.

The Vancouver Sun decries the growing evidence of deflation, which is caused by "a drop in aggregate demand. That is clearly the case in the U.S., where consumers have simply stopped spending". And the culprits are not interest rates or its neo-liberal brethren, tax rates. At the center of the problem is a demand-side drop in the expectation of profit: "the drop in demand for goods and services means business has little reason to invest, expand and create jobs". In other words, in a society where the majority of the GDP is controlled by consumers, businesses will not invest in goods, services or productivity enhancements if there is no expectation that consumers will buy these goods and services. Paying less tax is irrelevant if there is no taxable profit.

Keynes, anyone?

More on the Liberal budget update

Below is an interesting page (p. 144) from the BC Liberal government's 2009 budget update. If the "devil is in the details", then this is a great place to start. As I discussed in my September 29th entry, the Liberals are anticipating receiving less revenue from corporate income tax than post-secondary tuition. The former has been subject to years of tax cuts, while the latter has seen increases well beyond the rate of inflation.

If you examine these projections closely, you will find other interesting results. For one thing, personal income tax revenue will be six times corporate tax revenue by next year. There will also be more revenue from MSP premiums and liquor taxes, and almost as much from lotteries.

Bloodied But Onbowed

Growing up in suburbia during the late 70's and early 80's, I became a big fan of Vancouver's punk scene. I was never able to attend their concerts at the time - how could a good suburban boy ever get to (or into) the Smilin' Buddha? - but I bought as many records and cassettes as I could find. I'm not sure what attracted me to DOA, Art Bergmann, the Subhumans and the Pointed Sticks, et al., but it was probably a combination of the energy, bad language and social awareness that oozed out of these bands. And they wrote some damn good songs.

The Knowledge Network recently showed a great documentary on Vancouver's early punk scene called Bloodied But Unbowed. If you're interested in this scene - which Duff McKagan figures was one of the best in the world - the film is absolutely worth the 55 minutes.