Karl Marx, the promoter of Communist ideology, viewed the progression of human history as a series of conflicts between those in power and those bound to this power. He envisioned a classless society, no hierarchy, every man giving what he can to receive what he needs, working four hours a week and whiling away the rest of his days in philosophy.
The world does not work that way. Marx knew as much, declaring in his Manifesto:
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
Thomas Paine evinced a similar humanist enthusiasm (if such a thing is possible) on the eve of the American Revolution:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
The answer to this question then is the answer now: NO! We do not have such power. The world is an abstraction which cannot begin to contain, let alone attest the complexities of life, too great for one mind, no matter how brilliant, to perceive, let alone contemplate or transform.
In contrast to the Romantic naivete of Karl Marx, Shakespeare presented a sound world-view reflecting the inherent necessity of hierarchy. This political reality the Bard of Avon expounded through the mouth of the general Ulysses in his Problem Comedy "Troilus and Cressida":
78: The specialty of rule hath been neglected,
79: And look how many Grecian tents do stand
80: Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
81: When that the general is not like the hive
82: To whom the foragers shall all repair,
83: What honey is expected?
Ulysses points out the genius of hierarchy, comparing the workings of man to a hive, which produce no honey with proper respect for degree and place. If there is no respect of place, each person doing what one is called to do by necessity, then no work is done, nothing is accomplished.
Further on, Ulysses points out that degree is a boon to all elements in a system, no matter what the ranking:
Degree being vizarded,
84: Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
85: The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre
86: Observe degree, priority, and place,
87: Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
88: Office, and custom, in all line of order;
89: And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
90: In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
91: Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
92: Corrects the [ill aspects] of [planets evil],
93: And posts like the commandment of a king,
94: Sans check, to good and bad.
Hierarchy makes right and wrong a possibility, or rather an understood necessity of human life. Unlike the Right, those on the left think of evil only in terms of equality or inequality. Yet such an assault on human liberty has led to the massive enslavement, despoiling, and decimation of peoples and nations throughout human history. An understanding of place recognizes the qualities, the skills, and the limitations of humankind. When properly enforced, human beings on their own and with each accomplish great things, including the safeguard of their rights.
Ulysses then outlines the terrible outcomes that follow from removing "degree" or "hierarchy":
"But when the planets
95: In evil mixture to disorder wander,
96: What plagues and what portents, what mutiny!
97: What raging of the sea, shaking of earth!
98: Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors
99: Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
100: The unity and married calm of states
101: Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shak'd,
102: Which is the ladder of all high designs,
103: The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
104: Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
105: Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
106: The primogenity and due of birth,
107: Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
108: But by degree stand in authentic place?
It is contrary to soundness for there to be no degree. Comparing the lack of hierarchy to a sickness in the body, Ulysses comments that everyone is plagued, afflicted:
"O, when degree is shak'd, / Which is the ladder of all high designs, /The enterprise is sick."
And "degree" is not just an element of order, but a system of opporunity, a "ladder" which permits "high designs" Without division of labor, division of authority, with the myriad of trades and decisions from resource to revenue, there is little that can be accomplished.
"Stand in authentic place," this notion speaks to the essence that finding one's place in a world is more than subjection, but the enhancement of one's potential. Without hierarchy, disorder breaks forth, nature itself loses all sense of itself ("What plagues and what portents, what mutiny! / What raging of the sea, shaking of earth!")
Economist Thomas Sowell has made much of the media's inherent incapacity to recognize the fluid nature of income levels. Those who are bracketed as poor or limited economy can move up and down in the economic scale, sometimes frequently in one year. The wealthiest man in the world today may be ranked third or fourth next year. Wealthy inviduals also become poor or of more limited means throughout their lives, as well.
The canard that there are fixed levels in society, or that these hierarchies are stable and eternal, does not have any merit in actual life.
Hierarchy as a fixed element, though members within hierarchy may still move freely, has greater benefit and bears greater fruit for humanity as opposed to wretched attempts to undo different levels and respect for degree and place.
No comments:
Post a Comment