On Politics as Tragedy
October 26, 2004
Christian History tells its readers that “With the presidential election fast approaching and a Roman Catholic candidate in a near dead heat with the incumbent, it’s a good time to remember the man Catholics honor as politics’ patron saint.” In this article on St. Thomas More, Elesha Coffman cautions, “While exemplary in many respects, More is not quite a model for all seasons.”What Coffman means by this is unclear. Was it More’s name-calling in his anti-Lutheran polemic? Against the old line originating from John Foxe, Coffman says More “was not fond of torture” but notes Peter Ackroyd’s version of the contemporary view of More as a precursor of modern statism, with its frightening consolidation and use of power in the service of a particularist dogma: “[More] epitomized, in modern terms, the apparatus of the state using its power to crush those attempting to subvert it. His opponents were genuinely following their consciences, while More considered them the harbinger of the devil’s reign on earth.”
One could draw many lessons from Coffman’s note that “The irony, of course, is that More was soon crushed as a subversive himself.” A contemporary application might be our Pantagruelists’ warning that Christians seeking a seat at the table of the great may be too oblivious to this sort of danger, too trusting in the benefits of power once a little is acquired, too concerned with particular principles to wield power shrewdly.
Coffman closes with Clifford Davies’ comment that “In standing up for his principles [More] did quite a lot of nasty things including torturing heretics. He was a lawyer and he did use every trick in the book to try to avoid the consequences. Actually, he was quite an adept politician. But the fact is, he was executed for his principles, so why not make him a patron saint?”
Then again, why not make him a saint for being an adept politician, despite his principles eventually making him a political failure?
Christians do not like that line of thought, but history does present this sort of tragic either-or dilemma repeatedly: political power is inherently corrupting of pure principle, yet the truth of principles cannot get any traction in the political world without being in and of it. One may choose sectarian withdrawal, itself a kind of politics by other means, or the tragedy of engagement on the edge of risk and always compromised necessities. But it is not a real choice for the latter–or any kind of effective politics–to choose the former and pine for the latter, or vice versa. Alas, we have much double-mindedness of this kind, and it makes for a profound instability.
This is On Politics as Tragedy in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: Alasdair MacIntyre Joins the Not-Voting Camp in Slouching Toward Babylon | Next: The Manichaean Mind of Mark Noll and Richard John Neuhaus | TrackBack (3) | Comments (0)
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» A Dialogue on the Presidential Election from 1.3
On election eve, “discerning” Christians are awash with unsolicited advice and testimonies on the subject of voting. A growing chorus of Christian notables, now including Mark Noll, Alisdair MacIntyre, and Paul Griffiths, find things so decidedly unsat… [Read More]
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