BERKELEY ON FREEDOM AND A FEW OTHER THINGS

Here is a commendable personal selection of George Berkeley’s aphoristic gems, and the very first of them is already worthy of a separate entry built for its sake.

---“Others, indeed, may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretense to it; but the free-thinker alone is truly free.”

This goes straight to the heart of my own thesis on free society and free thought, to the effect that these two are often inimical to each other, whereas the free-thinking spirit flourishes in unfree societies. Not that Berkeley adds something new to my construct, but he is enough of an authority to relate to, when promoting my thesis.

---“We have first raised the dust and then complain we cannot see.” (Principles of Human Knowledge, Introduction, 3.)

I would not stop right there, though. There are many persons of authority these days (as probably in all ages of human history), who deliberately throw dust in the public eye, to prevent it from seeing.

---“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

What does it mean to be corrupt? It means to give and to receive “political” money on a regular basis, and to see nothing wrong in this practice. But wait, such is the nature of the American political process! No public official can be elected without the practice of wealthy donor donations, where the givers obviously expect a by no means impartial return on their investment. Here is classic corruption to you; its only difference from criminal corruption being that it is deeply ingrained in the political system, and thus decriminalized and institutionalized. See also this related dictum: “Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.” How true, indeed flattery and bribery are two intimately related engines of corruption!

---“The first and simplest emotion, which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.”

As my wife Galina Sedova likes to point out, “life [from her perspective] is an experiment.” Obviously, this is an emotional approach to life, as curiosity lies at the bottom of it. Indeed, Berkeley is so right!

--“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents in the construction of the state will be of no service. They’ll become flatterers, instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”

So, how does this thought transfer to the familiar political process? All aspiring politicians are of necessity victims to both evils: they prostitute themselves to the wealthy donors in order to get enough money for the election campaign, and then they prostitute themselves to the public, in order to get elected. The worst thing about it is that they seem to enjoy their prostitution business…

“It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.”

Wonderful! Here is the difference between the genius and the scholar, observed in the Genius section. This also reminds me of my apte dictum about the inconsistency of genius: only mediocrity is always consistent. Here is also the connection between rationality and irrationality: the admixture of the latter is an enemy of exactitude.

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

An important political triviality, which is not that trivial, after all, as a multitude of modern examples have amply demonstrated, not too long ago satirized by the self-inflicted ridicule of “mission accomplished.”

People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.

This is a good observation about the sense of history, which, once atrophied, affects the nation’s sense of the future in a most negative manner.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

It is true that a dramatic shift from democracy to tyranny is hard to leave unnoticed, whereas a gradual slide toward tyranny, particularly under reasonable pretexts and excuses, is seldom understood as such.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Indeed, crying “freedom, freedom!” without qualifying it and setting its boundaries is a sure prescription for anarchy and chaos, conducive to civil war, as we are incessantly taught by current history in the making.

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

This is obviously a continuation of the previous one-liner, and the same comment as above is suitable here as well.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Bravo, Berkeley, for presenting the idea of the good enemy more than two centuries before Nietzsche.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

But what if a great empire was built by great minds, but was later taken over by little minds? Say goodbye to greatness, America, having renounced the erstwhile elitism of the few for the mediocrity and littleness of the new age. The slide from the Alpine heights may take a while, but, alas, it is getting there. The Founding Fathers must be turning in their graves...

Thank you, Berkeley, for all this food for thought…