5 November

The idea of ‘Left’ versus ‘Right’ came out of the French Revolution, where those who voted to retain great power for the King sat on the right of the chamber, and those to limit that power sat on the left. At the same time one of the great debates in history took place, between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Paine was a rationalist, he thought society should be governed using reason alone. Burke was an institutional person, he saw society’s institutions as the accumulated wisdom of the ages. Paine applauded the French Revolution, Burke predicted it would lead to appalling horrors. (Burke was correct.) Unfortunately for our history Paine’s ideas were the ones that have been more influential since that time, particularly in the US, as we can see with their hatred of institutions. The victory of the idealists, in politics and religion. Today’s atheists are idealists too, they just swap one form of rationalism for another. They all see reason as the way to govern society. I’m a Burkean, not against reason, but all idealism - trying to run society using rational, ideal principles - I think leads to horrors.