It’s been suggested we fork important ideas from other threads to spawn new ones. So one thing that came up was Iain McGilchrist’s alleged poor judgement in attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference earlier this year. Opening that can, I found many intriguing worms. (See the article linked below.)
On the surface, the ARC mission “to draw on our moral, cultural, economic, and spiritual foundations to develop a more hope-filled vision for the future and, ultimately, to re-lay the foundations of our civilisation” sounds Second Renaissance-ish. Should we all be pals? Or if conflict is inevitable, what specifically is that conflict about?
It’s such a can of wrigglers! It’s worth remembering that the Third Reich had a rather romantic and earthy desire to return to the wild forests with men hunting the auroch in a primordial utopia of mountain and forest. All a very wholesome return to old values, the mythos can grip us in both directions.
Some of the ARC attendees are people I admire. But being of a certain age and developmental level, I well understand that such admiration should never be unqualified, unconditional, and applied to every action, affiliation, or opinion a person might have. No one is THAT perfect. If they do good work in one area, but are lacking in other dimensions, I’ll take the good work, thank you, and deal with the rest as the need arises.
For example, Niall Ferguson was an ARC speaker. I admire Ferguson’s historical work considerably, and I cite him several times in my forthcoming textbook. Ferguson, however, leans politically to the right in a way I do not. (David Brooks is closer to my personal politics, and even then Brooks is farther right than I am). When Trump was reelected, Ferguson was one of those making the pilgrimage to Mar a Lago. If he cares about my opinion in such matters (I doubt he does), I would take him to task for that. However, he is not blind to everything problematic about Trump. In a very telling YouTube, Ferguson rejects the stereotypical analogy of comparing current US circumstances to the Fall of Rome. Ferguson points out (rightly in my view) that the proper analogy is not to the fall of the Roman Empire, but rather to the fall of the Roman Republic and the advent of Caesarism. Ferguson (an expert on Nixon-Kissinger) thought Trump’s career was over on Jan 6, 2021 and was surprised at his ability to come back. For this, Ferguson blames the incompetence of the Biden administration, which sadly, is not at all off the mark. Lately Ferguson admits to worrying about the future of US democracy two days out of seven. That’s about five days per week fewer than the rest of us, but at least Ferguson understands the scale of the risks constitutional government currently faces. So yes, I will keep reading and listening to Ferguson. But no, I will not swallow Ferguson whole, nor will I be coming anywhere near anything like ARC or Mar a Lago.