THE ABOMINABLE CONMAN. PART I.

Talking about the vanity of the haves and the ignorance of the have-nots, and the charlatan experts taking advantage of both, Nietzsche, as always, is up to the challenge, putting his finger on the principle cause of this bothersome state of affairs:

“Most people are nothing, and are considered nothing, until they have dressed themselves up in general convictions and public opinions, in accordance with the tailor philosophy: clothes make people.” (Mixed Opinions and Maxims, #325)

He is not the only one to say it, of course. Hobbes and many others have said almost the same thing, but in different words, and, so far, the great philologist and poet Nietzsche says it much better! What I find even more appealing here is that he fits right into the tailor metaphor of the Andersen tale, which we have been discussing so far in this miniseries on the Emperors without clothes.

How do these reprehensible scoundrels, the abominable conmen, find the fertile ground for deceit, making sure that they can get away with their schemes, or, at least, that they have enough time to play their crooked games, and bail out before they are caught?

The state of unfreedom in repressive societies, as I have already had several occasions to remark, is hardly the best climate for the conmen to prosper, as the oppressed, paradoxically, compensate for their handicap by developing a keen and contrariant mind that works as a repellant to such schemers. On the other hand, in the free nations, people’s discomfort from their sense of… personal freedom (remember the dual nature of man, which has given rise to the Commonwealth in the Hobbesian sense) finds its own compensation in an urge for law and order, leading to a disproportionate, but completely subconscious (just try telling some fiercely freedom-loving Evangelical Christian that he is somebody’s fool, and you may end up with a broken nose, before he goes back to his church on Sunday to be duped by his crooked pastor; and on Monday, he goes to a political gathering, where he will be duped again, this time, by a Republican Party apparatchik) obedience to authority, and allowing the scoundrels to prosper, as long as they are smart enough to worm themselves into the good graces of a weak-minded authority, and start using it as their cover against everybody else.

But the state of political science, to which I am now descending, is, perhaps, the worst case of all con jobs, where even the brightest minds among the general public are so deeply sucked into the propaganda games, played by the powerful of all nations, that, just as they proudly congratulate themselves on eluding a clever trap of some sort, they are oblivious of the fact that at that same instant they had fallen fast into another.

These days, political science everywhere is a sorry spectacle. At its best, it boils down to mildly insinuating propaganda, and at its worst, it represents bold-faced deceit.

…And I am not talking about America only, where the level of political thinking seems to have reached the rock bottom. But what other nation, I may ask, has produced its own knight in shining armor to come to the rescue of our poor civilization-in-distress? What other nation today, rather than whining about the American hubris and gloating over her always self-inflicted wounds (no one can harm America as much as she harms herself, per President Ike Eisenhower!), would take to heart the profound lesson of Jonah and, maybe, start caring about our civilization’s common salvation?

But, perhaps, there is a shortage of prophets there, too? Perhaps, their own professors are charlatans, just as callous as ours? Otherwise, wouldn’t their voices have been heard loud and clear, now that they are needed so much?

Well, maybe not, if all conflicting and competing nations, their differences notwithstanding, are united in a mutually agreeable conspiracy to perpetuate a lie, satisfying them all. In that case, there may be no remedy whatsoever against such a concerted effort of the powerful of the earth.

But then, again, remember Hobbes centuries ago, in his Leviathan, ranting and raving about the “Darkness from Vain Philosophy” of the “Schools”? Come to think of it, so did every great philosopher from the Pre-Socratics to Nietzsche, so, maybe, this is not just the bane of our modern times. It may well be that political science is always a sham, when it pretends to transcend the boundaries of common sense, and passes itself off as something special, a thing-in-itself, claiming for itself some kind of extra privilege, and distinction, elevating it among all other social sciences, exactly like it was the case with sociology, before it got burnt, and exactly like it has always been the case with theosophy in religion…

(This is the end of Part I. Part II will be posted tomorrow.)