Res Idiotica
The following is an outline for an upcoming Adult Education Forum at Pub Theology, taken from Patrick J. Deneen’s book Why Liberalism Failed. I highly recommend it. The fact that Wendell Berry, Rod Dreher, and James Rebanks all seem to be saying something quite similar fascinates me.
The End of Modernity
500 years ago we shifted from an anthropology of common good to one of rights.
With society and politics in turmoil, the only certain rights are those of the rich.
This is a feature of liberal democracy rather than a bug; we are victims of our success.
Modernity came in three flavors: fascism, communism, and liberalism. Only one is left.
Fukuyama’s “End of History. Hobbes’ “Leviathan.” Locke’s social contract theory.
Unsustainability
Liberty was classically understood as the virtue of self-government against tyranny.
Modernity reimagines liberty as unchecked desire, limited only by my neighbor’s desire.
Classical liberty was maintained through civil society: overlapping social commitments.
Modernity does away with all relations save that between the individual and Leviathan.
This entails mastery of nature, environmental (conservative) or human (progressive).
But this cannot go on forever. Eventually both moral and material reserves are depleted.
Individualism and Statism
The atomistic individual and absolutist state are not opposed; they create each other.
The individual does not exist in nature but must be liberated by the state.
The state must constantly grow in scope in order to maximize individualism.
Free market conservatives and big government liberals both drive the same engine.
This leads to militarism: primitive societies must be liberated for rights and free trade.
The quest for a community is a basic human need which is no longer being met.
Anticulture
Three pillars of anticulture: conquest of nature; primacy of the present; deracination.
There can be no culture of any sort without nature, time, and place. Tabula rasa.
This is not the “state of nature” imagined by Hobbes and Rousseau. Culture is human.
Civilized or savage: the former rules nature while the latter is ruled by nature (Dewey).
Without an inheritance from the past, there is no legacy for the future, only need now.
Globalization: citizens of everywhere and nowhere. “Who conquered you?”
Tyrannical Technology
We’ve always had technology but it used to work for us. Now we work for technology.
Pollution, nuclear warfare, artificial intelligence—we’re convinced it’s going to kill us.
But technology is not inevitable. Consider the Amish: “Is this good for the community?”
Our technologies are the products of our political philosophy, i.e. individualism.
Porches vs patios. The things we think will liberate us often make us lonely.
Don’t think like an economist. The market cannot infinitely expand. Why pretend it can?
The Liberal Arts
The liberal arts exist to liberate human beings through education, virtue, and self-rule.
But we have abandoned the liberal arts (for STEM) as impractical and useless.
Education fitting for a res publica has been displaced by education suited for res idiotica.
“Idiot,” in the Greek, means a private person, one who does not participate in society.
Virtue is a discipline, an education put into practice, a good habit: it restrains passions.
Liberty isn’t liberation from restraint but a capacity to govern appetites. Tripartite soul.
The New Aristocracy
Meritocracy culls elite students to become deracinated vagabonds: upward mobility.
This produces a two-tier system: civilized and savage, urban and rural; new aristocracy.
Locke didn’t believe in democracy. The “querulous and contentious” shouldn’t rule.
Jefferson called this “natural aristocracy” the proper ruling class, rational, industrious.
Despite growing inequality, commoners are kept quiet with greater material prosperity.
Of course we feel like we don’t have a say in our government; we’re not supposed to.
All support systems have been shorn away save those that can be bought by the rich.
Meritocrats pass on advantages to their children in opportunity, education, and wealth.
Plato’s “noble lie”: both rulers and ruled believe a false tale legitimizing the regime.
For modern liberal democracy, this is the myth of equality among the blatantly unequal.
Citizens No More
Private over public things, self-interest over civic spirit, opinion over common good.
Gov’t becomes a separate yet beneficent entity providing a menu of infinite choice.
Administrative elite does away with the need for messy democracy; they know best.
This isn’t paranoid speculation. It’s all laid out rather clearly in the Federalist Papers.
Hamilton writes that administrative excellence must dissolve affection for the local.
Tocqueville observed that only voluntary civil society upheld American democracy.
What’s Next
People feel powerless before government, economy, technology, and globalization.
Even a degraded citizenry will throw off the shackles of an enlightened order.
Liberalism has failed because liberalism has succeeded. Pathologies come to fruition.
The “noble lie” is breaking. Discontent is growing. The end of the system is in sight.
What comes next? Populist nationalist authoritarianism? Military autocracy?
Liberalism’s real achievements must be acknowledged. We can’t go back, only forward.
We need to return to the local, natural, communal. Berry, Dreher, and Rebanks (!).
Liberty can only be achieved through civic and individual self-rule, not consumerism.
Why do some 90% of Amish youth return to their community after Rumspringa?
Democracy needs civil society, and the Church has always been a core pillar of that.
Counter-anticulture. The Benedict Option. Building, planting, gardening, fixing, canning.
Natural rhythms and patterns. Reject ignorance and laziness. The “arts of association.”
We may not see what comes next, the “liberty after liberalism,” but we must preserve what is good and true and beautiful for our children and our children’s children.
HOW LIBERTY FAILS
The Church, the State, and the Individual
The End of Modernity
500 years ago we shifted from an anthropology of common good to one of rights.
With society and politics in turmoil, the only certain rights are those of the rich.
This is a feature of liberal democracy rather than a bug; we are victims of our success.
Modernity came in three flavors: fascism, communism, and liberalism. Only one is left.
Fukuyama’s “End of History. Hobbes’ “Leviathan.” Locke’s social contract theory.
Unsustainability
Liberty was classically understood as the virtue of self-government against tyranny.
Modernity reimagines liberty as unchecked desire, limited only by my neighbor’s desire.
Classical liberty was maintained through civil society: overlapping social commitments.
Modernity does away with all relations save that between the individual and Leviathan.
This entails mastery of nature, environmental (conservative) or human (progressive).
But this cannot go on forever. Eventually both moral and material reserves are depleted.
Individualism and Statism
The atomistic individual and absolutist state are not opposed; they create each other.
The individual does not exist in nature but must be liberated by the state.
The state must constantly grow in scope in order to maximize individualism.
Free market conservatives and big government liberals both drive the same engine.
This leads to militarism: primitive societies must be liberated for rights and free trade.
The quest for a community is a basic human need which is no longer being met.
Anticulture
Three pillars of anticulture: conquest of nature; primacy of the present; deracination.
There can be no culture of any sort without nature, time, and place. Tabula rasa.
This is not the “state of nature” imagined by Hobbes and Rousseau. Culture is human.
Civilized or savage: the former rules nature while the latter is ruled by nature (Dewey).
Without an inheritance from the past, there is no legacy for the future, only need now.
Globalization: citizens of everywhere and nowhere. “Who conquered you?”
Tyrannical Technology
We’ve always had technology but it used to work for us. Now we work for technology.
Pollution, nuclear warfare, artificial intelligence—we’re convinced it’s going to kill us.
But technology is not inevitable. Consider the Amish: “Is this good for the community?”
Our technologies are the products of our political philosophy, i.e. individualism.
Porches vs patios. The things we think will liberate us often make us lonely.
Don’t think like an economist. The market cannot infinitely expand. Why pretend it can?
The Liberal Arts
The liberal arts exist to liberate human beings through education, virtue, and self-rule.
But we have abandoned the liberal arts (for STEM) as impractical and useless.
Education fitting for a res publica has been displaced by education suited for res idiotica.
“Idiot,” in the Greek, means a private person, one who does not participate in society.
Virtue is a discipline, an education put into practice, a good habit: it restrains passions.
Liberty isn’t liberation from restraint but a capacity to govern appetites. Tripartite soul.
The New Aristocracy
Meritocracy culls elite students to become deracinated vagabonds: upward mobility.
This produces a two-tier system: civilized and savage, urban and rural; new aristocracy.
Locke didn’t believe in democracy. The “querulous and contentious” shouldn’t rule.
Jefferson called this “natural aristocracy” the proper ruling class, rational, industrious.
Despite growing inequality, commoners are kept quiet with greater material prosperity.
Of course we feel like we don’t have a say in our government; we’re not supposed to.
All support systems have been shorn away save those that can be bought by the rich.
Meritocrats pass on advantages to their children in opportunity, education, and wealth.
Plato’s “noble lie”: both rulers and ruled believe a false tale legitimizing the regime.
For modern liberal democracy, this is the myth of equality among the blatantly unequal.
Citizens No More
Private over public things, self-interest over civic spirit, opinion over common good.
Gov’t becomes a separate yet beneficent entity providing a menu of infinite choice.
Administrative elite does away with the need for messy democracy; they know best.
This isn’t paranoid speculation. It’s all laid out rather clearly in the Federalist Papers.
Hamilton writes that administrative excellence must dissolve affection for the local.
Tocqueville observed that only voluntary civil society upheld American democracy.
What’s Next
People feel powerless before government, economy, technology, and globalization.
Even a degraded citizenry will throw off the shackles of an enlightened order.
Liberalism has failed because liberalism has succeeded. Pathologies come to fruition.
The “noble lie” is breaking. Discontent is growing. The end of the system is in sight.
What comes next? Populist nationalist authoritarianism? Military autocracy?
Liberalism’s real achievements must be acknowledged. We can’t go back, only forward.
We need to return to the local, natural, communal. Berry, Dreher, and Rebanks (!).
Liberty can only be achieved through civic and individual self-rule, not consumerism.
Why do some 90% of Amish youth return to their community after Rumspringa?
Democracy needs civil society, and the Church has always been a core pillar of that.
Counter-anticulture. The Benedict Option. Building, planting, gardening, fixing, canning.
Natural rhythms and patterns. Reject ignorance and laziness. The “arts of association.”
We may not see what comes next, the “liberty after liberalism,” but we must preserve what is good and true and beautiful for our children and our children’s children.
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