Pessimism and Moderation

Here is a quote from The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss: "Machiavelli believes with Marx that religion is the opium of the people.  But unlike Marx, Machiavelli believes that the opium will always be necessary because of the unchanging nature of both men and the world.  The world is characterized by scarcity, whereas human desires are limitless."

For the time being, I am not not interested in Strauss, Machiavelli, or Marx, but in the "unchanging nature of both men and the world."  According to this quote the idea is that human desire is unlimited, while nature herself is unlimited.  This is a fundamental disparity that cannot be changed.

As I mentioned in the last post, a utopian optimism is a feature of liberalism. Whether this is the case of the classical liberals, who thought that men could excel given freedom and the chance to pursue their own desires, or the progressive liberals, who see human nature as something that arises out of social conditioning or historical circumstances, the goal is a more peaceful society with happier people who have more of their desires met.

The conservative sees this as an unrealistic goal.  If human nature is relatively stable, at least in the sense that people always, and by nature, want more than what they have, then no amount of social engineering will take away the universal hardships that we as humans face.  This does not mean that no condition is better than any other.  On the contrary, the conservative positively affirms that civilized society is better than anarchy.  It is because of the value that society has for humans, that conservatives are wary of changing it.  Civilization is more fragile than people realize.  It takes constant work and upkeep from us, the citizens.  By rushing headlong into the utopian future, we might be giving up what we already have, civilized society, for an imaginary chimera, the perfect society.

When facing a desire there are two ways to proceed.  One can change the circumstances in order to sate the desire, or one can change the desire itself in order to no longer be pained by the lack of satisfaction.  The conservative, the proponent of virtue ethics, will opt to moderate his desires.  The modern liberals, the consequentialist and utopians, have opted to change the world.  For the utopian to succeed, he must find a way to make nature more plentiful.

Moderation, one of the cardinal virtues of the Ancients, is one of the keys to being a happy and successful person.  In fact, all of the virtues are fundamental to happiness.  Instead of changing nature, or hoping for a brighter future, the virtuous person perfects his own nature, insofar as this is possible in life, in order to harmonize the demands of humanity and the bounties of nature.

-Cato the Youngest