From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Sun Nov 21 2004 - 17:29:03 GMT
Hi David M,
This made me laugh, but I think you're being naughty. Platt's second point might perhaps be better
articulated as "ideologically guided societies (socialism, communism, the New Deal) lack a concept
of DQ....", because the point is surely that anyone who thinks he (or she) has 'the answer' becomes
a static barrier to DQ, a 'little Joe'(?) who causes queues to form while he shuffles paperwork. So
any ideological system which seeks to *guide* society is inherently less prone to allow for DQ (and,
IMHO, prone to dictatorship) than one which seeks to maximise human freedom. (I'm not wanting to
make the free market into an idol here - it needs bounds also - but to make the point that if you
give the free market a significant role then you are also, to a large extent, giving up a degree of
control over where you end up).
I've just read an article by Kenneth Minogue (right wing British professor of political economy, for
those who don't know him) which I think gives a better description of the differences at stake here.
(Because isn't anyone else getting a bit fed up with 'I'm intellectual, you're social' on each side
of the debate here? I say that as someone who's indulged in it just as much as anyone, of course).
Minogue writes this:
"Let me make one suggestion. Our civilisation has become the site of something mot much less intense
than a cultural civil war. One the one hand we have the historic Western civilisation deriving from
Greece and Rome, developing into Christendom and modern times. Such a 'Historic West' is to be found
in the art, literature, architecture, music, philosophy and science we have inherited from our
European past. On the other hand we have the 'Rationalist West', which believes itself to have
emerged out of the Enlightenment and to have generated a universal civilization which in its
doctrine of rights and its programme of internationalism has transcended the prejudice,
superstitions and oppressions of the past."
This division has merit, it seems to me, because it is a step back from the ordinary 'left/right'
dichotomies and seeks to establish the grounding authorities for each point of view. Where would the
MoQ sit? Probably in the 'Rationalist West', but I'd be interested to hear other's perspectives.
Cheers
Sam
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