The Inescapability of Politics

Human beings are not mere animals, but political animals. Aristotle was right.

Modern Americans are a fickle bunch: They lament how they tire of politics, yet they're quick to politicize everything without pausing.

Research shows that Americans, on average, can go from calm silence to venting hatred toward Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Democrats, or Republicans in just 2.8 seconds.

This is understandable in a postmodern, postconstitutional regime. When everything is regulated by bureaucrats, subsidized by taxpayers, weaponized politically to promote one party or turn citizens against the other, when everything requires a license, permit, or some other kind of permission, it's difficult not to be political.

And it’s exhausting. I get it. That's why many fellow citizens say they're not interested in politics, even though they know, deep down, that politics is always interested in them. Anyone who pays taxes knows that those in politics will never, ever leave them peacefully alone.

Ever.

Let me, then, offer for your consideration a larger, more sweeping, philosophically deeper view of politics—a broad political horizon in comparison to which the partisan squabbles of the day and the foolish remarks of lifelong crony politicians seem insignificant.

It might provide some much-needed perspective.

Governing is Ruling

The modern English word “government” is a noun based on the verb “to govern.” A government governs.

The verb "govern," in turn, has roots in Latin—gubernare—and Greek—κυβερνᾶν.

Both the Latin and Greek roots refer to steering, directing, or guiding, as in a pilot steering a ship. In classical Greek and Roman literature, these words were used to describe those who govern, which is to say, those who rule.

To govern is to rule. To rule is to steer, direct, guide, or otherwise control what others do and don't do. Some forms of governing, or ruling, are limited. Sometimes governments are limited to certain areas of life or to certain delegated powers.

Other governments are total. With total government, there is no limit to government power, no spheres of human activities exempt from government control, planning, directing.

Human beings are peculiar earthly beings in that we possess the capacity both to rule and to be ruled, sometimes simultaneously. Sometimes we are ruled by some in certain areas of our lives, while we rule others in other areas.

Our English word "politics" is derived from an important and unusual Greek term, "polis," the basic political unit in ancient Greece that encompassed not only the physical city but also its citizens, governance, and the way of life upon which the city depends.

The word "politics" includes those who rule, those who are ruled, in what ways, and for what ends or goals. This is a much broader understanding of politics—one that cuts through time and across space—than our typical, narrow modern understanding.

Being Ruled as Preparation to Rule

From the beginning of human history to the present, wherever human beings are found, one finds political acts of ruling and being ruled. Parents, for example, rule their children, at least until the children are old and capable enough to rule themselves.

In war, conquerors rule the conquered, victors rule the defeated. In peace, those in government rule the governed, sometimes with their consent, sometimes not.

There are other forms of ruling as well.

A physician rules over the surgical procedure or the medicine administered. In a free market, physicians rule over medical matters only with the consent of patients. In unfree or “single-payer” regimes, patients don’t have much say in the care they receive.

Whether ruling is just or unjust, however, there is always a form of rule.

The architect rules the building of the house. The captain rules the heading and speed of the ship. The accountant rules the financial statements. The teacher rules the class. The coach rules the team. The priest rules the religious service.

We humans are not alone in ruling and being ruled.

Many social animals live in packs, herds, and colonies. They experience something akin to ruling and being ruled. It’s not the same as human ruling, to be sure, but it’s a kind of ruling.

At a minimum, herd animals know who among them is more powerful or weaker, with whom not to trifle, who it's safe to push around, and from whom they can take food.

Rule among subhuman animals is instinctive, inherited, a function of power. Worker bees serve the queen, not vice versa, and never has a union of bees objected to the injustice of this arrangement and provided a moral argument for why. Never has a Queen bee offered something like the theory of divine right to justify her elevated position within a hive.

Questions

Unique to human beings, however, unlike all other animals, we alone possess the natural capacity to ask fundamental, permanent questions about ruling, which are fundamental, permanent political questions:

• What kinds of rule are just, and what kinds are unjust?

• Who should rule, in which circumstances, and why?

• To what ends or purposes should rule aim?

Answering these questions thoughtfully, perhaps even correctly, requires great study of human nature—a course of study in which the Great Books, as well as history and the annals of human experience, provide valuable assistance.

Politics—or political disputes—result naturally from disputes over possible answers to the questions posed above. Some say the wisest one should rule. Others say it should be the few rich, the powerful, or the most popular. Still others say the many—or the democratic mobs—should rule.

Here’s the rub: Only we human beings are capable of asking these fundamental political questions, and we do ask them, and we should ask them. Yet, always, every possible answer to the questions above is intrinsically arguable, debatable, disputable, for the simple reason that no answer to the questions above are universally accepted as obviously right, correct, or just.

This is what makes human beings not mere animals, but political animals. Aristotle was right.

Questions of who should rule, how, and toward what end are inherently political questions. Answers to these questions are typically accompanied by explanations, and those explanations will always be challenged by some, especially those who have an interest in changing who rules, how, or toward what end.

One can change the time and place where people live, change the names of the people in a community—exchange people of some colors with people of other colors—and, still, politics persists wherever human beings are found.

Human beings rule other human beings, and only humans can ask whether that rule is right or wrong, just or unjust, morally legitimate or illegitimate. Only humans can answer those questions and provide reasons why.

Inescapable

Politics—or what some of us call political science, properly understood—begins with the study of fundamental, permanent political questions, the fundamental, permanent human questions. Political science is a study that will be relevant and important as long as humans exist.

It cannot be otherwise because people will always have opinions about who is ruling, why, and toward what end. No matter how smart someone like Anthony Fauci might be—or millions of other bureaucrats like him—there will always be some who rightfully point out: “I gave him no permission to rule over me in any way.”

It is also true that sometimes we are called upon to rule in ways we never expected, but which love of others combined with duty demands. George Washington could have lived a comfortable, quiet life at Mount Vernon. Instead, he answered the call of duty and chose to lead an army of naive boys in a fight against the most hardened, deadly military ever assembled on Earth.

Later, Washington exercised the power of government—he governed—after being unanimously elected President by the new Electoral College created by the United States Constitution.

In this odd and almost mysterious way, we humans can prepare to rule responsibly by being ruled. We learn how to be parents, for example, by first being children and observing how our parents rule over us.

In a truly self-governing republic, those in constitutional offices rule over citizens with limited constitutional powers while, at the same time, citizens rule over those in constitutional offices through elections backed up by the power and threats of impeachment and revolution.

To witness this kind of reciprocal political ruling occur as it should in a self-governing constitutional republic is a beautiful thing to behold. Alas, too many Americans today don’t even remember what self-government looks like. They assume their fellow citizens are perpetual children, and those in government are fundamentally different—they are perpetual parents.

Those among us who say they're “not interested in politics” are, in fact, admitting they're not interested in human nature—in their own nature—which is why it's typically an untrue or inaccurate statement. The falsehood is exposed the moment someone attempts to rule them in ways they believe are unjust, to which they respond with political protests: “That’s wrong!”

It turns out, even those who proclaim no interest in politics find, sooner or later, that they cannot help but be political. They cannot escape politics, no matter how hard they might try. Humans are political beings. The only questions are whether our politics will be wise or unwise, learned or unlearned, principled or unprincipled, constitutional or unconstitutional, just or unjust. An indissoluble union exists between the answers we choose and the future and fate of our nation.