tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post1676048457769608125..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: Why did Deakin go left?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-61618011566335739102018-04-09T17:03:00.851+10:002018-04-09T17:03:00.851+10:00Deakin was a giant of his day, but as you say he w...Deakin was a giant of his day, but as you say he was of his day.<br /><br />His role in organising and radicalising the "Australian Natives Association" in regards to federation deserves to be better known.<br /><br />I flipped through Brett's book and from what I saw it looked like the work of a woman trying to make Deakin look as palatable as possible to modern middle class lefties such as herself.<br /><br />Judith did after all write an entire Monthly essay arguing that free speech needed to be properly "controlled" in the case of climate change.<br />JAMESnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-59263462012920660552018-04-09T10:52:40.913+10:002018-04-09T10:52:40.913+10:00Sorry James. Deakin did have qualities that I admi...Sorry James. Deakin did have qualities that I admire. He was still influenced by the older aristocratic code (of being a "gentleman"); he loved poetry, literature and nature; and he lived at a time when it was still thought right to be manly (as evidenced by the photo of him on the cover of Brett's book: https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-enigmatic-mr-deakin).<br /><br />He also contributed to the Australian "settlement" - in which Australia was to remain an Anglo-Celtic nation; cheap labour was to be excluded; class warfare was to be held in check; and working-class living standards were to be protected.<br /><br />I have to say, though, that the settlement was partly a matter of luck. Britain was still the world economic and military power that Australia wanted to be allied to, so there were reasons for the Australian elite to foster the traditional connections to the UK.<br /><br />There was a manufacturing class in Melbourne that had rising influence that supported protection.<br /><br />And the labour movement was young and still expressed the patriotic values of rank and file workers, rather than that of a professional class of union leaders. Also, it was thought progressive at the time to support protection as a labour right.<br /><br />When conditions changed, so too did the policies and so the settlement didn't last. Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-27990365096600886332018-04-09T10:33:26.010+10:002018-04-09T10:33:26.010+10:00The conceptualizing of liberals tends to go in a s...<i>The conceptualizing of liberals tends to go in a straight line from the individual to the universal or universal state.</i><br /><br />Well, that fits with Deakin, who in drawing distinctions between liberals and conservatives, said of liberal policies that "All such provisions point to larger and more effective Unions within the realm and then beyond it."<br /><br />Judith Brett comments on this that Deakin saw "liberalism as the agent of humanity's evolution toward higher unities". <br /><br />At the same time, Deakin was encouraging people to be "actuated by proudly loyal devotion to the State".<br /><br />It is a vision in which loyalty is vertical - upwards to the state - and the state itself is to move ever further away from the local toward the universal.<br /><br />I have to say that I struggle at times to understand this mindset - my own mind just doesn't work this way. Judith Brett seems to think that the German idealists, via Carlyle, might have had some influence on Deakin. But I wonder too if it isn't connected to Deakin's loss of orthodox faith. Deakin was a spiritualist. He thought there was a spiritual plane of existence and not just a materialistic one, and that it was possible to commune with individual spirits. But he doesn't seem to have had a sense of a relationship with a personal God. And, once God is removed, there seems to be a temptation for some intellectuals to put Humanity in God's place. Meaning is centered on the movement of Humanity toward its perfect ultimate ends, and the intellectual gets to dedicate his life toward making reforms in this direction. People with this mindset seem to think it right to shift from "parochial" loyalties and identities toward a singular one based on Humanity.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-26126014820112831832018-04-09T08:10:26.194+10:002018-04-09T08:10:26.194+10:00Damnit Mark I had a rather idealised view of Deaki...Damnit Mark I had a rather idealised view of Deakin before I read this.<br /><br />Way to rip off my rose tinted glasses.JAMESnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-90283607456762221212018-04-09T07:39:59.706+10:002018-04-09T07:39:59.706+10:00"Self-interest and individualism have their p..."Self-interest and individualism have their place, but need to be balanced by the interests of society as a whole, for which the state is the appropriate agent."<br /><br />I think a lot of people would agree with this statement without seeing right away that it omits the "baffles" in between. I find this often in other venues: this broad polarity is acknowledged while other states and conditions, such as the loyalties and social commitments you note, hardly get any notice. <br /><br />The conceptualizing of liberals tends to go in a straight line from the individual to the universal or universal state. Ignored or rejected is the importance of family, church, ethnic heritage, local and national sense of place, even professional and sporting organizations. I think many would agree that these "intermediate" realms are quite real and important and yet they have no explanation as to why they are excluded from current narratives. Those who determine the rules of the fight have marginalized these considerations to their advantage.<br /><br />The reason may be simple: it is relatively easy to exert control on individuals, by other individuals or groups, and also relatively easy to exercise the power of the state once it is in place. It is far more difficult to push back on smaller, regional, private groups whose members know one another. Progressives know this and have been on the attack accordingly; those who are right-of-center are slow to see their beliefs as a political cause as opposed to a default way of life.leadpbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08957439101293478340noreply@blogger.com