Enduring Values

Greatness from Within?

“Our existence as citizens… is made possible by our enduring attachments to the things we hold dear. Our condition is not that of homo oeconomicus, searching in everything to satisfy his private desires. We are home-building creatures, cooperating in the search for intrinsic values, and what matters to us are the ends, not the means, of our existence.”

~ Roger Scruton, How to be a Conservative

This being my first contribution to the Broken Binnacle, I thought it fitting to attempt to answer directly, at least in part, the questions posed at the inception of The Endurance. The question of how magnanimity is to be lived out practically speaking is one that is admittedly new to me, and outside of my wheelhouse as a more speculatively inclined thinker. However, it seems that one key attribute which is often lacking in our pursuit of worldly ends in a ‘holistic and integrated way’ is, in a word, positivity. Now the readers who know me and my negative tendencies personally are free to take a minute to chuckle or scoff… however, I mean ‘positivity’ in several ways beyond the hallmark-card, glass-half-full sense that is at once apparent.

By way of background, in recent news, I witnessed a liberal politician ask with an exasperation not unlike that of one trying to appease an indecisive child, “what are conservatives for?” This is a fair question, since it seems that every conservative politician is very good at pointing out the flaws in the liberals’ attempts at reform, yet when it comes to providing an alternative, the best we seem to hear that government should change nothing. How dare we act surprised when this position is met with utter incomprehension and consequently dismissed! If someone offers no solution to a problem that is manifest, they have de facto removed themselves from the theater of debate on that issue. The fact of modern conservatism’s negative tendency is what has led me to this conclusion of the importance of what I have called “positivity.”

My first meaning when I say “positivity,” is that kind of positivity that is simply an affirmation of what is and what is good. This is the true foundation of the conservative mindset, not a resistance to change simply, but a resistance to throwing away what already exists that is good and worth preserving; and it is this resistance that often manifests itself as a resistance to change. To situate the ideals of conservatism in a positive way is not something that is often done or is easy to achieve, yet it is the only possible defense of these very ideals. (For an authoritative defense of this characterization, the reader would be well advised to read Roger Scruton’s work, How to Be a Conservative.)

The liberal mindset is fundamentally one of problem solving; the liberal way of governance is the one which is intent on, and sometimes nearly obsessed with, solving the problems that the governed most want solved. The counterpart to this position is not that which denies the problem, but the one which approaches the matter with cautious reserve and respect for the events and judgements which led to the current state of affairs, so as not to undo the work of centuries and generations prior for the sake of solving the most currently pressing issue.

This brings me to my second meaning of “positivity” as the key to pursuing worldly ends in an integrated way. To be conservative in this robust sense is necessarily to be part of an organic posit of tradition, possibly better understood as a perennial organism in which the presently living play a mere part. That posited tradition is holistic, is integrated; and so, to pursue one’s worldly ends consciously and respectfully within the context of that tradition is the goal. To avoid beating about the bush, so to speak, a necessary part of what it takes to “endure” is to be and act as a part of a perennially enduring tradition. It is precisely this tradition which should be the object of the first type of positivity that I spoke of, and the proper contextualization of one’s life within that same tradition is my second intended meaning of that term, albeit an archaic meaning.

Finally, the third meaning I wish to convey with “positivity” issues forth from the practice of the first two. It is on its face like the “glass-is-half-full” attitude from which I previously wished to distance my position. However, when this superficial “positivity” is enriched by that positivity of affirmation of and living in accordance with an enduring tradition, it becomes something possibly more aptly called “joy.” The soul who lives in this way is filled with enduring values, not vanities, and it is made great through a rich inheritance, not through haughty or individualistic pursuits.

And so, in combining these three meanings of positivity, one arrives (at least intellectually) at the mean between the extremes of vanity and pusillanimity. The habitual recognition of that tradition which is responsible for what is good about this person’s situation combats vanity; and that tradition in a sense fills his soul by his habituation of its principles of life, and so fortifies him against a smallness of soul, i.e., pusillanimity. This virtue is called magnanimity.

Yet, what does this mean practically speaking? After all, that is the question placed before us. How can and should the reader become magnanimous? Thus far, I have spoken of a framework from which to view this virtue intellectually, but something more is needed to put it into practice. We require a kind of knowledge which does not simply transform the intellect, but one which transforms the entire soul. More specifically, we require a knowledge which itself moves the will toward action, that is, we require a judgment. And so, we see that the recognition of the tradition into which one has been born must extend beyond the factual recognition of the historian. If one wishes to become magnanimous, it seems that he must have a deep grounding in the judgments of that tradition. And so, the primary model of magnanimity that emerges, perhaps unexpectedly, is that of the good civil judge. For there is a man who is an embodiment of the precedent judgments of society and tradition as well as the arbiter of present and future judgments therein. But how should a ‘normal’ person strive toward magnanimity?

My simple answer is that most, if not all, of the readers of this will never be in a position to practice magnanimity, at least in its fullest sense, and certainly not in the Aristotelian sense (though perhaps the impossibility of Aristotelian virtue in a Christian life should be continued in a separate essay). However, in reading Joe O’Reilly’s “The Ego, the Self, and the Shadow” recently, I was reminded of an interesting psychological phenomenon: the fact that most of one’s personality traits can be either explained by or reflected in one’s three closest friends. The practical advice concealed in this observation, obviously, is that one ought to strive to befriend those whom he wishes to become more like. Now, while befriending Justice Alito might be at the top of some of my colleague’s bucket lists, I imagine that the majority of people will find it more practical to pursue the same end in a very different way, that is, through literature. For if in reading of such a magnanimous person, one enters into a kind of friendship, not with the individual, but with the character which symbolizes them, it stands to reason that in doing so, one makes marked progress on the way to that magnanimity which has been exemplified. This friendship goes beyond study, it should be said, since mere study of the virtues cannot bear fruit in kind; only habitual action can produce true virtue.

At this juncture, it seems best to let this suffice as a partial answer to the question of living magnanimously. I trust that the topic will be picked up again in the near future, as it is only just begun, and I seem to have expanded the question more than closed it. But this is often the case with the pursuit of arduous goods; as a traveler going toward a mountain, the object sought seems more daunting the closer he comes. Let us, therefore, not be discouraged, but strive to endure.