The False God of Politics; A. Brownfeld

The False~ God of Politics ALLAN C. BROWNFELD FOR too many Americans, govern nlent has become the source of all good and all evil to be found in the contemporary world. If there is too much crime, if the high ways are overcrowded, if the pro gramming on television is medi ocre, if jobs are unsatisfying and marriages are unrewarding, if children seem indifferent, and a sense of community seems less and less evident, then what we need, of course, is a change in Administration, a new party in power or, to radicals, a revolu tionary upheaval. Somehow we have come to be lieve that we do not have respon sibility for our own lives but that established political authority is responsible for the good, the evil, even the ambivalence of the modMr. Brownfeld of Alexandria, Virginia, is a freelance author, editor, and lecturer especially interested in political science. ern world. Where men and women once turned to the church and to the family for the inner meaning of life and the fulfillment of emo tional needs, they now seek such answers from the political process.

Unfortunately, politics cannot pro vide such answers. Discussing the faith which mod ern man has placed in politics, and the futility of such an ap proach to life, the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, currently poet in-residence at the University of Michigan, has provided an analy sis which Americans would do well to consider. Brodsky declared that, "I do not believe in political movements. I believe in personal movement, that movement of the soul when a man who looks at himself is so ashamed that he tries to make some sort of change - \vithin him ~elf, not on the outside. In place 101 102 THE FREEMAN February of this we are offered a cheap and extremely dangerous surrogate for the internal human disposition toward change: political move ments of one sort or another. Dangerous psychologically more than physically. Because every po litical movement is a way to avoid personal responsibility for what is happening .... As a rule com munality in the sphere of ideas has not led to 'anything particu larly goOd."l On Changing the World What, then, is to be said of political ideas?

Often, we are told by politi cians, such as those who urge redistribution of wealth or a com plete alteration of our social and economic systems, that "The world is bad, it has to be changed." To this, Brodsky replies: "The world is precisely not bad; one could even say the world is good. What is true is that it has been spoiled by its inhabitants. And if it is necessary to change some thing it is not the details of the landscape but our own selves. What is bad about political movements is that they depart too much from their own origins, that on oc casion their results so disfigure 1 Joseph Brodsky, "A Writer Is a Lonely Traveler, And NoOne Is His Helper," The New York Times Magazine, October 1, 1972, p. 11. the world that it really can be called bad, purely visually; that they lead human thoughts into a dead end. The intensity of politi cal passions is directly propor tional to their distance from the true source of the problem."

Underneath the rhetoric, what those who seek political solutions for all social and personal prob lems are saying is that such solu tions do exist, and that, in effect, all of our difficulties can be cor rected, if only they are given a chance to do it. Joseph Brodsky, who has recently emerged from a Communist society which tells us tha tit has all of the answers to such problems, states that, "There is something offensive to the hu man soul about preaching paradise en earth. Replacing ~etaphysical categories with pragmatic ethical or social categories is somehow a debasement of human consciousness." The Limits of Government The conception of government believed in by the Founding Fath ers of our own country was that all the political process could or should do was to provide order and an atmosphere of freedom within which each man could go as far as his own ability would take him. A political process which attempted to do more than this, to provide equality of condition 1974 THE FALSE GOD OF POLITICS 103 rather than of opportunity as the advocates of racial and sexual quotas urge today, would inevi tably end as a tyranny.

There was no doubt at that time that government had to be severe ly limited, and that the political process should not deal with a wide range of societal and per sonal problems .but should deal only with certain carefully and clearly defined areas of concern. The Federalist Papers (Number 51) declare: "What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were an gels, no government would be necessary .... In framing a gov ernment which is to be adminis tered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence upon the peo ple is, no doubt, the primary con trol on the government, but ex perience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precau tions." At this time there is a great deal of confusion about the mean ing of the term "equality." What is meant by this term, in the con text of our political tradition?

According to John Locke, in the state of nature there exists a "state of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is recipro cal, no one having more than an other ... " Yet the English philos opher emphasizes that this equal ity is not one of condition, and is hardly absolute, even in the state of nature: "Though I have said above .... that all men by nature are equal, I cannot be supposed to under stand all sorts of equality: Age or virtue may give men a just prece dency. Excellency of parts and mer it may place others above the com mon level. Birth may subject some, and alliance or benefits others, to pay an observance to those to whom Nature, gratitude or other respects may have made it due; and yet all this consists with the equality ... I there spoke of as proper to the business at hand, being that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom." When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that, "All men are Created Equal,"

he was speaking of ,,'equality" in the terms set forth by John Locke in his Second Treatise: not equal property, or equal status, but an equal right to be free. A Los;ng Battle We are told today that individ ual freedom must be sacrificed so that those who are "disadvan taged" can be given a more "equi table" place in society. Peter 104 THE FREEMAN February Viereck has noted that, "There is a line of diminishing returns for humanitarianism. Beyond it, the increase in security is less than the loss of liberty."2 Freedom, those who challenge it today should un derstand, has never been taken away, except for a "good" reason. To expect the political process to make men good when God has made them otherwise, is to expect what politics cannot do. Discus sing the creation of the Republic, John Adams declared that, "Who ever would found a state and make proper laws for the govern ment of it, must presume that all men are bad by nature .... Human nature with all its infirmities and depravities is still capable of great things. . .. Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute. The vir tues and powers to which men may be trained by early education and constant discipline, are truly sub lime and astonishing."3 A free society traditionally has sought to permit men and women to become themselves, and each man and each woman will, and should be, different and unique.

Those who urge egalitarianism in the name of "justice" must remem ber that every movement which seeks to make men the "same" has only made them similar in their servitude. Politics is no panacea, and only when we begin to look not to Wash ington but to ourselves will our lives have any purpose and mean ing. Man cannot find outside of himself what is not to be found within, though in this troubled time many are trying to do this. The end of such a futile search is the disillusionment with politics and with ourselves which is so evi dent today. When men discover that their idols are indeed false, they smash them with a venge ance. By then, however, it is often too late. , 2 Peter Viereck, The Unadjusted Man (Boston: Beacon Press, 1956). 3 Quoted in Conservatism in America by Clinton Rossiter (New York: Vintage, 1955) . IDEAS ON LIBEHTY Ingratitude IF ONCE they are habituated to it, though but for one-half year, they will never be satisfied to have it other\vise. And having looked to governlllent for bread, on the very first scarcity, they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.

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