Should-Read: John Holbo: Thinking About Groups
Should-Read: John Holbo: Thinking About Groups: “I’m going to say a few (thousand) words about… Jacob Levy’s good new book, Rationalism, Pluralism, Freedom… http://crookedtimber.org/2017/08/20/thinking-about-groups/
…At its core is a dilemma–an antinomy: two models of the optimal form and function of groups within a liberal order. Neither model can be quite it. It seems we need to split the difference or synthesize. But there is no coherent or necessarily stable way. (Well, that’s life.) There, I gave away the ending. Groups? Yes, you know the sort: families, political parties, ethnic groups, clans, churches, professional organizations, civic organizations, unions, corporations, neighborhood groups, bowling leagues. The lot…. In a modern liberal democratic society is like this: there are citizens and there is the state. Citizens enjoy a basket of liberties and rights, over and against each other and the state…. Now, if you have these two basic units, the state and the individual, it makes it kind of tricky what the normative status is of intermediate groups, eh?
What is all that in-between stuff good for or bad for? What sorts of ‘mediating groups’ need to exist–because they’re great! possibly vital for the health of citizens and/or the state itself! What sorts of stuff should not be permitted, because it’s toxic–either to the state or to some individuals. And what sorts of stuff should be merely tolerated, even though its a bit dicey, but pragmatically what are you going to do?…
At this point some people might say: I care about the health/power/status of my group way more than I care about either the stability of the state or respecting the rights and liberties of my fellow citizens…. But if you say that, you really are not… committed to liberal democracy…. I’m only considering what attitude you should have towards groups… if you have some normative commitment to making sure individuals can exercise their rights and enjoy their liberty, equally, in a stable liberal-democratic state. This is a timely issue: identity politics and groupthink and partisanship and tribalism…