The Dangers of rising expectations

Title

Creator

Ways, Wax

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Prudence.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Prudence is the virtue that restrains wisely the excesses of modern economic and political forces and tendencies.

Fulltext

■ Prudence is the virtue that restrains wisely the excesses of modern economic and political forces and tendencies. THE DANGERS OF RISING EXPECTATIONS Politics has always been a mechanism for choice. But in the old exigent, direction less societies the range of possible choice was narrow and popular expectations exerted little pressure upon government. One could choose between — or com promise — the conflicting tariff interests of southern planters and northern manu facturers, and that settlement might represent most of a year’s political decision mak ing at the federal level. The choices now are thousands of times more numerous and the expectations are now suf fused with an unprecedented emotional intensity. We have not made smooth ly the transition from the old situation of political choice to the new situation. We need a new rhetoric of poli tical discussion. We need a problem - solving approach, not an extension of the old politics of rivalrous interest groups. We need systems analysis, which cannot make our decisions for us but can at least get into focus the re lative costs and benefits of given choices. Among the broad catego ries of choice is that between jam today and jam tomor row. The Soviet Union over the decades has rigorously opted for jam tomorrow by maintaining a high rate of capital investment and a high rate of educational ex penditure relative to con sumer goods; this policy the U.S.S.R., under pressure of expectations, may be forced to modify. In the U.S., which has had a more balanced situation, very sharp tax in creases at local, state, and federal levels could imme diately alleviate much pre sent distress in the disadvan taged 20 percent of our po pulation — although, as has been indicated, this would not necessarily reduce ex 18 Panorama pectations. And very sharp tax increases might so impair the economic dynamo that tomorrow’s total product would be seriously diminish ed. More than half of all U.S. Negroes are active, prog r e s s i n g participants in “whitey’s” vigorous economy — which is also their econo my and the economy on which the children of poorer Negroes and poorer whites must depend for tomorrow’s opportunity. Chile’s situation may illus trate another broad category of chdice: between rising levels of economic growth and political freedom. Eduar do Frei’s democratic regime may be succeeded by an au thoritarian government that trades freedom for increased production. Similarly, more advanced countries could be panicked by high-pressure demands into accepting “effi cient” government manage ment of the economy that would exchange a promise of high growth rates for ever widening controls. Expecta tions, out of hand, could undo centuries of political progress toward democratic government. Since modern expectations everywhere have an emo tional component, born of Christianity’s sense of moral history, they cannot be quell ed by purely practical argu ments about the limits of technology and economics. One needs to search within the Christian tradition for a concept that will tame ex pectations while respecting them. The name of the concept is prudence — a word that does not occur much these days except as a name for girls in Quaker families. When it does appear in po litical debate it is taken to mean a crabbed conserva tism, a cautious disengage ment from the impulses of the more generous virtues. This is not what prudence, in the Western tradition, sig nifies. It is the link that joins the virtues of the mind and heart, especially charity, to action. Like a good law yer, prudence tells you how to do it right. To Aristotle, who was a political adviser as well as a philosopher, pru dence was the channel be tween universal truths and practical affairs; it was, in July 1968 19 action, the fusion of intelli gence and appetite. A lot is heard these days, especially on campuses, about “commitment” and “involvement” in the great social crusades, the great ex pectations of our time. The impulse that leads this way does not deserve rebuke. Yet without prudence, without attention to the actual con tingencies and feasibilities of life, “involvement” is doom ed to be sterile — or worse. Courage, of which we have lately heard much, is a virtue our time needs. Pru dence does not diminish the courage of the good soldier; it makes his courage effective in action. Nor does prudence diminish the courage, the compassion, the love of jus tice in the political adminis trator or the citizen; in the modern situation it leads him toward a habit of intelligent choice among the thousands of desirable steps that might be taken, but cannot be taken “all at once.” That the whole world is freeing itself from the wheel of repetition is good news derived essentially from what Christians consider the Good News. Without prudence, the expectations that have been set in motion may tum into the worst news ever. — By Wax Ways, Excerpts from Fortune, May, 1968. AGAINST DOUBT To be busy with material affairs is the best preservative against reflection, fears, doubts — all these things which stand in the way of achievement. I suppose a fellow proposing to cut his throat would experience a sort of relief while occupied in strop ping his razor carefully. — Joseph Conrad. 20 Panorama

pages

18-20

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