April 4, 2022
THE LONG WAR IN A NUTSHELL:
Politics And Original Sin (Martin Butler, 45/04/22, 3Quarks)
Beliefs about the essential goodness or badness of human beings have been at the heart of much political theory. A recent book by the political philosopher Lea Ypi succinctly expresses the conflicting approaches. Speaking of her mother she's says:"Everyone, she believed, fought as a matter of course, men and women, young and old, current generations and future ones. Unlike my father, who thought people were naturally good, she thought they were naturally evil. There was no point in trying to make them good; one simply has to channel that evil so as to limit the harm. That's why she was convinced socialism could never work even under the best circumstances. It was against human nature."This negative view of human nature is associated with philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and the more positive view with Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The overwhelming advantage of the Anglosphere is the way our Christian view has insulated us from the isms of the Continent, all of which presuppose a lack of inherent evil--thus their faith that Man is plastic and can be molded rationally into any desired form.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 4, 2022 12:00 AM