The general deterioration of the moral principle shows itself rather more in the tendency of modern society to tolerate, to condone, and to acclaim, than in a changed standard of individual conduct. In so far as violence, deception, and cruelty, of which there is more in the world than there used to be, find expression in individual action, this can often be traced to the residue of demoralisation and exasperation left over from the [first] World War and its aftermath of hate and misery. The general deterioration of the moral sense of values can best be observed, therefore, in those countries which have been least affected by the world-wide political and economic upheaval. This deterioration appears most clearly in the appreciation of political conduct as contrasted with the judgment of economic conduct. In respect to moral failings of an economic nature, offences against commercial good faith, abuse of property rights, etc., the popular attitude remains much as it used to be: sincere condemnation with now and then a tolerant smile. The tolerance increases and becomes coupled with a measure of admiration in proportion to the scope of the offence. The international swindler meets with more sympathy than the embezzling clerk from the suburbs. Into the attitude towards the great financial scandals creeps a certain admiration for the talent with which the gigantic machine of technical organisation and international finance is operated. On the whole, however, the moral valuation of economic crime seems to have remained essentially unchanged.
The situation is entirely different when the party forming the object of judgment belongs to and acts in the name of Government. In its attitude towards political conduct—that is, acts committed by the State or any one of its organs—the public at large shows itself increasingly indifferent to moral judgment. Except, of course, when the acting party is a foreign State or an opposition element within the State which has from the outset been branded as "enemy." Still, the tendency of the public to acclaim and admire great political actions is not limited to the acts of the State to which it owes allegiance, alone. The worship of success, which was already seen to exercise a mitigating influence on the judgment of economic misconduct, is capable of eliminating practically all moral indignation from political judgment. It is carried to such lengths that many seem prepared to value a political organisation whose fundamental doctrines they abhor, according to the degree of success with which it achieves its predetermined aim. Incapable of judging the nature of this aim, the means with which it is pursued, and the degree to which it is actually achieved, the spectator contents himself with the external signs of achievement, which are the only ones the newspaper reader or the tourist can observe. Thus a political system which first filled him with disgust and subsequently with fear and awe, will gradually obtain his acceptance and even admiration. Injustice, cruelty, restraint of conscience, oppression, falsity, dishonour, deceit, violation of law and equity?—But look how they have cleaned up the cities and what wonderful roads they have built!--Johan Huizinga In The Shadow of Tomorrow, Chapter 13. (Translated by Huizinga.)
A few weeks ago, I noted that Huizinga's (1938) Homo Ludens ends with a fierce attack on Carl Schmitt (recall this post on Huizinga's eviction of a Nazi intellectual; and this one on the criticism of Schmitt). A paper by Alexander Lambrow had alerted me to the fact that Huizinga's (1935) In De schaduwen van Morgen (In the Shadow of Tomorrow) is also explicitly critical of Schmitt in Chapter 12. In fact, while in Homo Ludens the criticism of Schmitt can be treated as an afterthought (I wouldn't do so myself), it is pretty essential to the whole argument of In The Shadow of Tomorrow, which is Huizinga's philippic against the temptations of fascism and a lament on the death throes of bourgeois culture. This can be seen by the allusion to Schmitt's ideas in the quoted passage ("when the acting party is a foreign State or an opposition element within the State which has from the outset been branded as "enemy."")*
The larger argument in Chapter 13, is a criticism of the social tendency to glorify 'existence and life,' and to prefer these over 'knowledge and judgment' (a tendency, which according to Huizinga, can also be found in Lebensphilosophie and what he calls 'existentialism'). This tendency is constitutive of what he calls the 'general deterioration of the moral principle.' To put it in Nietzschean terms (Nietzsche is mentioned a few times in the book), what Huizinga objects to is the effects on social mores of a cult of the affirmation of life. The passage quoted at the top of this post is an illustration of such purportedly nefarious effects.
The key point for present purposes is that political success, independent of the moral quality of the ends it serves, generates admiration, what Huizinga calls, "the worship of success." Such worship is able to corrupt the moral sentiments when it comes to political matters (it "is capable of eliminating practically all moral indignation from political judgment").
It is somewhat surprising that Huizinga treats this as a modern phenomenon requiring special explanation. We might say that the moralists of all ages have declaimed against the worship of success. One of my favorite examples of an analysis of the worship of success can be found in a rather elitist passage of Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments:
Our admiration of success is founded upon the same principle with our respect for wealth and greatness, and is equally necessary for establishing the distinction of ranks and the order of society. By this admiration of success we are taught to submit more easily to those superiors, whom the course of human affairs may assign to us; to regard with reverence, and sometimes even with a sort of respectful affection, that fortunate violence which we are no longer capable of resisting; not only the violence of such splendid characters as those of a Caesar or an Alexander, but often that of the most brutal and savage barbarians, of an Attila, a Gengis, or a Tamerlane. To all such mighty conquerors the great mob of mankind are naturally disposed to look up with a wondering, though, no doubt, with a very weak and foolish admiration. By this admiration, however, they are taught to acquiesce with less reluctance under that government which an irresistible force imposes upon them, and from which no reluctance could deliver them. (TMS 6.3.3o)
According to Smith the worship of success is a natural disposition which grounds our complicity in our own subordination to social and political hierarchy. This is also so when the hierarchy is founded on violence. And while elsewhere Smith also calls this disposition a corruption of the moral sentiments, he also makes clear that it such self-subordination also has social utility: "THIS disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments." (TMS 1.3.1.1)
In fact, throughout TMS, Smith returns to the corrupting dazzle that violent conquerors like Caesar and Alexander generate. As he puts it while contrasting their achievements to more genuine philanthropists:
We may believe of many men, that their talents are superior to those of Caesar and Alexander; and that in the same situations they would perform still greater actions. In the mean time, however, we do not behold them with that astonishment and admiration with which those two heroes have been regarded in all ages and nations. The calm judgments of the mind may approve of them more, but they want the splendour of great actions to dazzle and transport it. The superiority of virtues and talents has not, even upon those who acknowledge that superiority, the same effect with the superiority of achievements. (TMS 2.3.2.3)
I have to admit that, against Huizinga, I think Smith is right that the worship of brutal success even when one does not benefit from it oneself (and it may go against one's moral principles and political commitments) is not a uniquely modern post WWI phenomenon. (That's compatible, of course, with being agnostic about Smith's further claim that the disposition is itself useful because it is order preserving.)+
But Huizinga and Smith do help point to the way to how to respond to the worship of success. The proper response to such worship is not to criticize the ends or means that the subject of admiration engages in. This will not undermine the dazzle of achievement. No the proper response, I think, is to either undermine the dazzle by a kind of -- echoing Jason Stanley's terminology (recall here; here)-- undermining propaganda directed at the splendor that surrounds their success, or, when that it is impossible or too costly, to undermine the very success itself. The best way to tackle, say, an aura of invincibility is to beat the villain at their own chosen path. Of course, if success means victory on the battlefield, that's easier said than done.
This strategy -- of blocking success from those that are worshipped for their success -- raises complex questions when one simultaneously recognizes that to end, say, an existing conflict face-saving measures may well be required. For these very face-saving measures may well reinforce and entrench the dazzle and splendor that surrounds the (to use Smith's terminology) most brutal and savage barbarians.** And if we look obliquely at today's headlines this means that the temptation to end miserable suffering of innocents has to be weighed against strengthening the interests and dazzle of a violent (and nuclear armed) dictator.
*In the Dutch there are no quote marks around 'vijandig' (enemy).
+My sense is that Huizinga justified indignation made it difficult for him to analyze this phenomenon with the same dispassionate brilliance as his other social theory.
**I would argue that in these passages Smith is explicitly undermining the self-congratulatory distinction between civilization and barbarism by pointing out that within civilization savage violence also generates morally corrupt worship of success.
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