Sign in  |  Register

The New Criterion

It operates as a refuge for a civilizing element in short supply in contemporary America: honest criticism
- The Wall Street Journal

Features

June 2010

Morals & the servile mind

by Kenneth Minogue

On the diminishing moral life of our democratic age.

I am in two minds about democracy, and so is everybody else. We all agree that it is the sovereign remedy for corruption, tyranny, war, and poverty in the Third World. We would certainly tolerate no different system in our own states. Yet most people are disenchanted with the way it works. One reason is that our rulers now manage so much of our lives that they cannot help but do it badly. They have overreached. Blunder follows blunder, and we come to regard them with the same derision as those who interview them on radio and television. We love it that our rulers are—up to a point—our agents. They must account to us for what they do. And we certainly don’t live in fear, because democracy involves the rule of law. Internationally, democracies are by and large a peaceful lot. They don’t like war, and try to behave like “global citizens.” There is much to cherish.

Y ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase

Subscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions)

Subscribe to TNC (Online only)

Purchase article credit and clip this article

If you already have an account login first

Kenneth Minogue is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics.


more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 28 June 2010, on page 4

Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Morals---the-servile-mind-5318
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend


The New Criterion

By the author

Marriage in our time

by Kenneth Minogue

On matrimony in a culture of convenience.

Conservatism & the morality of impulse

by Kenneth Minogue

On the challenges of responding to modernist morality.

A triumvirate for our time

by Kenneth Minogue

On The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World, by John O'Sullivan.

You might also enjoy

Christopher, for better & for worse

by Peter Collier

On the critic, polemicist & raconteur Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011).

Let's tickle the ivories

by David Dubal

On the joys of playing the piano.

Most popular

view more >

The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices

Webcasts

Anthony Daniels on the Euro Crisis
The New Criterion author Anthony Daniels delivers remarks in New York City about the "European experiment." With an introduction by editor Roger Kimball. Recorded on November 30, 2011.


Andrew C. McCarthy: The Muslim Threat
The New Criterion contributor Andrew C. McCarthy delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the threat of Islamism to the United States. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces McCarthy to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.


Roger Kimball: The Grim Future of Statism
The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the future of statism and The New Criterion's 30th anniversary. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces Roger Kimball to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.

Weblog