Out of Balance

I would delimit the bounds of this era with the appearance of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1680) and its subsequent refutation by John Locke in the Two Treatises of Civil Government, and its end by the present moment. “The purpose of Locke was to justify the English Revolution of 1688. The Two Treatises of Government, which were published in 1690, not only confute the doctrine of absolute monarchy founded on divine right but also envisage a political system in conformity with the innovations of the Convention Parliament.” (“Introduction”, John Locke, Two Treatises of Civil Government, by William S. Carpenter (1924), page v. The problem with Locke’s refutation is that it does not go far enough. Yes, one could have built into the US Constitution better safeguards against concentrations of power. But the concept of allegiance, which I discussed on my paper “Give Up the Struggle”, is always there to undercut any coherent notions of individual autonomy. No, the problem is there at the foundation of any possible concept of political liberalism, which can be defined thus: Coercion is justified if it promotes liberty. This is liberalism without the Sunday dressing. Note that the first word in this wholly adequate definition is “coercion.” Coercion lies at the heart of liberalism and therefore kingship (Patriarcha) lies at the heart of liberalism. “Every State is a despotism, be the despot one or many, or (as one is likely to imagine about a republic) if all be lords, that is, despotize over one another. For this is the case when the law given at any time, the expressed volition of (it may be) a popular assembly, is thenceforth to be law for the individual, to which obedience is due from him or towards which he has the duty of obedience.” (Max Stirner, The Ego and its Own, Cambridge UP 1995, p. 175.) It’s time for PB Shelley to be heard from: “The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys: Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes whate’er it touches; and obedience, bane of all freedom, beauty, virtue, truth, makes slaves of men, and of the human frame, a mechanized automaton.” (from Queen Mab)