An OurKingdom conversation. This is Jeremy Gilbert's response to Rosemary Bechler in OK's debate on liberalism and democracy [History: Jeremy Gilbert > Rosemary Bechler > Jeremy Gilbert > Rosemary Bechler (part 1; part 2) > this post]
Agreeing to Disagree?
Reading Rosemary's double response to me Unselfish Individualism and Power and the Many, I'm reminded of a conference at which I heard Ernesto Laclau reply to a question about the differences between his philosophy and that of Alain Badiou. In response to a technical query about their respective attitudes to post-Cantorian set theory and its implications for the ontology of the political event, Laclau quipped ‘The real difference between myself and Badiou... is that Badiou is a Maoist and I am a Gramscian'
Not funny? Well, maybe you had to be there.
What got a laugh from the audience that day was the recognition of the truth implicit in Laclau's remark - that discussion of the technical differences between a pair of contrasting philosophical positions must at some point cease, if it is not to degenerate into endless, circular babble. It ceases at the point where each side accepts that there are some fundamental differences at stake which neither party it likely to be talked out of.
I think Rosemary has helpfully clarified the differences between us, because to the majority of her remarks I can only respond that I simply disagree, not with many of the finer points or details but fundamentally. What is clear is that the difference between myself and Rosemary... is that she is a liberal and I am not.
I really don't mean this in a pejorative sense. (I know there is a danger that it will be taken as such, because both Rosemary and I have backgrounds in political traditions which are contemptuous of liberalism.) I also don't mean ‘liberal' in a casual sense: certainly not in the current United States usage of a general supporter of social liberalism and welfare egalitarianism. I mean quite specifically that Rosemary's operating assumptions and priorities, like most of her civic republican sources, are clearly those of the great liberal tradition which is, after all, the major tradition of Western political thought in the modern era.
The assumption that political and cultural individualism does not necessarily imply an assent to the basic philosophical assumptions of the most violent kinds of possessive individualism; the belief that communities are or should be formed on the basis of individuals choosing freely to belong to them; the belief (implicit or explicit) that the rights and freedoms of individuals are the highest good to be defended by any political project; these are the core assumptions of the liberal tradition.
Of course Rosemary is a much more interesting and thoughtful sort of liberal than say, Richard Reeves in the UK and his hero John Stuart Mill (so too are David Marquand, or most followers of the great philosopher of republican justice, John Rawls). Nonetheless, most of Rosemary's criticisms of me amount to criticisms of any position - radical or conservative, left or right - which does not share these cores assumptions of liberalism.
Now I recognise that, not only are these Rosemary's assumptions: they are also likely to be beliefs which many, perhaps most, oD readers will not only share, but will regard as too self-evidently true to be rationally questionable. On top of all this, it is important to recognise the enormous power and success of liberalism in recent years, as it has transformed the world in its image and freed up the lives of millions of people in the process. Nonetheless, it is also crucial to recognise that for all of their power and global popularity, these liberal assumption have not been and are not shared by a vast majority of human beings at any time in history: and they are also assumptions which I freely, gladly, joyfully admit that I do not share.
