Commentary
If you had to choose one word to characterize the normal operation of society, would it be cooperation or conflict? That choice turns out to be crucial for history and the future. Some ideologies imagine the whole of the social order is and always has been about seething and intractable conflict.
Others see such conflicts as constructed and unnecessary, a result of toxic systems and ideologies.
This division in outlook is arguably more foundational than any other, including every form of left and right.
Let’s consider an interwar classic as an example.
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You can respect Professor Schmitt as a thinker and please remember: his intellectual template provided the essential template for the Nazi Party. His influence here was what you might call right-wing Marxism with roots in Hegel. In short, this is not a classically liberal, much less, democratic way to see the world.
In this view, the assertion of human rights is balderdash and the notion of democracy is too. These are nothing but myths we tell ourselves, delusions we temporarily held in the 18th and early 19th centuries that vanished as quickly as they came. Schmitt was a believer in power and a successor to Machiavelli in instructing a ruling class on how to gain and hold power but his view was more extreme and raw.
It remains popular today perhaps as a descriptive theory of the world into which we’ve descended, one where half the public is wired to fly into a frenzy if the other side wins the election. It seems to be where we are headed. The great worry is that there is no coming back from this descent in Schmittianism.
This struck me last week in talking with friends about what happens after the November election. Everyone seems to be in fighting mode depending on the outcome. This seems to be a new approach in American politics in which one side will not accept power being held by the other side. This is precisely the nightmare feared most by the Framers of the Constitution.
Federalist 10 says: “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.”
The point is simply that authoritarianism is no solution to factionalism. The only way to keep conflict and division in check is liberty itself. That was the dream and the philosophical outlook that shaped the most transformative period in the history of humanity. The elevation of liberty as the solution to conflict is the greatest discovery in the history of ideas.
The sheer number of people who have visited New York City, and yet not taken a boat trip around the Statue of Liberty, is astonishing. It remains today the most marvelous and inspiring sight in the United States. It looks smaller than you expect from a distance and its sheer scale is awesome on close viewing. From the foot to the tip of the flame, it covers the length of a football field.
It is impossible not to be utterly delighted in the viewing. It’s more than just a wonderful piece of art. It’s not a historical figure, an author, or intellectual. Lady Liberty symbolizes a high ideal. That is the Enlightenment conviction that all people carry within themselves the dignity to deserve the presumption of rights and freedom that should and must be the very core of the human experience.
Also the very word and the time in which it was installed (1886) further suggest that a society that values liberty allows society to take its own form without centralized management from above.
This conviction briefly ascended to a kind of Western orthodoxy about this time. This was 21 years after the end of the Civil War and before the Spanish-American War, a period in United States and Western history known as the Belle Époque, a time of incredible technological growth, cities soaring to the skies, communications and flight within view, and even better access to food and medicine.
France gifted this statue to the United States as an homage to shared ideals in a time of wonderful optimism, peace, and plenty. The United States was then seen as the paragon of the practice of human liberty, especially given that the United States had finally dealt with its original sin of slavery. The United States was perfectly poised to be a light unto the world, with the statue marvelously symbolizing the thinking and the ideal.
It stands there today both as a reminder and rebuke. As I stared at it from the boat, my heart was lifted up. Yet I remembered the movie from my childhood when Charlton Heston in the original “Planet of the Apes” finds the statue buried in the mud. It’s one of the most riveting scenes in the history of film.
The demise of a dream occurred amidst the turmoil of the nation in a distant future. It is evident that we have not reached that point yet, but the path we are on is perilous. It is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain a government that depends on the consent of the governed through voting, only to have half of the population reject the outcome.
While disappointment after elections is not uncommon, the traditional belief was that it was a time to get involved, educate, inspire, and mobilize for the next opportunity. This has been the norm for centuries, but is it still applicable today? The questionable tactics of governmental agencies, censorship of information, and legal attacks on political adversaries suggest otherwise.
This shift towards Schmittian madness is leading us towards a dangerous precipice. The dichotomy of friend and foe should not be the guiding principle of our existence. The beacon of hope held by the Statue of Liberty illuminates a path towards a better future. Let us all look towards it, draw inspiration from its ideals, and follow its light to a brighter tomorrow.
(Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Epoch Times.)
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