aspiring to realism
Adopting a realistic approach towards the world does not consist in always reaching for a well-worn toolkit of timeless verities, nor does it consist in affecting a hard-boiled attitude so as to inoculate oneself forever against liberal enthusiasm. Realism, taken seriously, entails a never-ending cognitive and emotional challenge. It involves a minute-by-minute struggle to understand a complex and constantly evolving world, in which we are ourselves immersed, a world that we can, to a degree, influence and change, but which constantly challenges our categories and the definitions of our interests. And in that struggle for realism β the never-ending task of sensibly defining interests and pursuing them as best we can β to resort to war, by any side, should be acknowledged for what it is. It should not be normalised as the logical and obvious reaction to given circumstances, but recognised as a radical and perilous act, fraught with moral consequences. Any thinker or politician too callous or shallow to face that stark reality, should be judged accordingly.I very much like this idea of Realpolitik not as a position but rather, properly understood, an aspiration. Often what people call their βrealismβ is simply their intellectual and moral laziness.
Perhaps related: Iβve always been slightly annoyed by the tagline of the New Criterion β βThe New Criterion will always call things by their real namesβ β because it assumes that knowing the real names of things is easy. A better and more honest, if less resonant, tagline would be βWe will always call things by their real names if we can figure out what they are.β