Graeme Garrard30 September 2019

How To Think Politically - Graeme Garrard - #107

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take12:30

Why Your Politics Now Defines Your Whole Character

Garrard argues that the modern habit of judging a person's entire identity by their political leaning is not new — it's a return to the historical norm. The recent decades of tolerance and civility toward differing opinions are the aberration, not the current rising intolerance. As political divergence over fundamentals deepens, identity itself becomes a matter of debate, raising the temperature.

Linking political views to core identity (religion, tribe) is the historical norm
The tolerance we grew up with is the exception, and it appears to be declining
When disagreement is about fundamentals, passions inflame and identity becomes contested
Falling trust in politicians makes people more cynical and power-focused
Brexit is offered as a case where identity became entangled with political position

“you can no longer have a political ideology which isn't a comment on you as a person”
Chris Williamson · 12:45

“the abnormality is the kind of tolerance and civility that we had until fairly recently which now seems to be declining”
Graeme Garrard · 14:30

#identity#tolerance#polarization#brexit

Explainer· 4

Explainer01:30

What Politics Actually Is (And Why We Need It)

Graeme Garrard defines politics as a uniquely human way of managing societies through argument, debate, rhetoric and persuasion rather than force. Politics lives between total agreement and total disagreement: if you agreed on everything you wouldn't need it, and if you agreed on nothing you'd have no community at all. When shooting breaks out, politics ends and war begins.

Politics manages human disagreement using language, not violence
It occupies the middle ground between total consensus and total conflict
Garrard rejects Clausewitz's 'war is politics by other means' — for him, when war begins, politics ends
Democracy is only one form; most of human history was governed by non-democratic politics
Ancient Athens was the great early democracy, then near-silence for ~2,500 years until an 18th/19th-century rebirth

“politics is a way of managing human societies that uses argument debate rhetoric persuasion but doesn't resort to use of force”
Graeme Garrard · 01:45

“if you didn't agree on anything you wouldn't have a political community at all to start with... but if you agreed on everything you wouldn't…”
Graeme Garrard · 03:00

#politics#philosophy#democracy#conflict

Explainer07:30

Politics Is Not Just Power — It's Might AND Right

Garrard argues against the purely cynical 'House of Cards' view that politics is only a struggle for power. Power is a fundamental aspect of politics but not the whole story. A complete, more human view of politics includes a second dimension: justice, ideas, values and conceptions of what is right. Both power and justice — might and right — must be held together.

All politics involves power, but not all power involves politics
The 'Frank Underwood / Francis Urquhart' view reduces politics to a naked power struggle
That view leaves out a whole dimension: justice, values, ideas, and ends
A complete view of politics balances power/interest against ideas/justice
Times of acute divergence intensify the struggle for power because more is at stake

“all politics involves power but not all power involves politics”
Graeme Garrard · 08:00

“we refer to both power and to justice to might and right and I think that's a more complete view and really a more human…”
Graeme Garrard · 10:15

#power#justice#political-philosophy#values

Explainer28:30

Nietzsche's Diagnosis: Why Comfort Breeds Existential Dread

Garrard explains why Nietzsche resonates now more than in his own lifetime. Nietzsche diagnosed the malaise of modernity — the crisis triggered by the 'death of God' and the loss of beliefs that sustained Western civilization. He attacked a world of 'comfortable self-preservation' where basic needs are met but tension, tragedy and struggle are lost. Without that tension, Garrard says, Nietzsche believed a civilization produces only mediocrity.

Nietzsche self-published because his books didn't sell in his lifetime; now they sell in the hundreds of thousands
His core diagnosis centers on the 'death of God' and lost sustaining beliefs
He saw modern life as a flabby bow with no tension — using a bow-and-arrow analogy
Once basic survival needs are met, minds turn to purpose and meaning — the problem of abundance, not scarcity
Garrard rates Nietzsche a supreme diagnostician but a poor prescriber — his 'cure' was worse than the illness

“the problem with Nietzsche is that the cure that he prescribed was much worse than the illness”
Graeme Garrard · 29:45

“Nietzsche attacked his own civilization for being a world of comfortable self-preservation a really narrow sheepish world where most people's lives... had no tension in…”
Graeme Garrard · 32:30

#nietzsche#modernity#meaning#philosophy

Explainer41:30

Naive Idealist vs Naive Realist — And Why You Want to Be Neither

Garrard positions his book between two failure modes of political thinking. The naive idealist is otherworldly, prescribing solutions with no grasp of reality — feet planted in the clouds. The naive realist believes ideas and values play no part and politics is purely about power and interest. Effective politics requires both power/interest and ideas/values; ignoring either makes for weak leadership, especially when big problems hit.

Naive idealist: all ideals, no real experience of political reality
Naive realist: all power and interest, no room for ideas or values
Garrard positions the healthy view between the two extremes
David Cameron is offered as a purely pragmatic politician who lacked a clear conception of ideas and values
Pragmatism works in good times but fails against deep divisions like Brexit or rising populism

“we make a distinction between what we call naive idealists and naive realists and we try to position ourselves somewhere between the two”
Graeme Garrard · 41:45

#idealism#realism#leadership#political-theory

Story· 3

Story14:30

Almost Every Great Political Thinker Paid a Price

Garrard traces a through-line across 2,500 years: political thinkers who propounded heterodox views suffered for them. Socrates was executed by democratic Athens for what he said, not what he did. From there, nearly every major thinker up to the 19th century was killed, tortured, or exiled — Machiavelli tortured, John Locke and Karl Marx forced into exile. It illustrates how intolerant the public sphere has historically been.

Socrates was made to drink hemlock for his political views, not any crime
Machiavelli was tortured; Locke and Marx were driven into exile
Persecution of thinkers was the norm right up to around the Enlightenment
Only from the Enlightenment onward did the West adopt a more relaxed stance
That period of greater tolerance may now be receding

“it starts with Socrates who was executed by the Athenians which was a democracy after all... they forced him to drink hemlock for his political…”
Graeme Garrard · 15:00

#history#socrates#free-speech#intellectual-history

Story19:30

The Five Philosophers Garrard Would Seat at His Dinner Table

Asked to pick five of the thinkers from his book for a dinner party, Garrard chooses Rousseau (whom he has studied closely — a strange, austere, paranoid man), Plato (standing in for the silent Socrates, for the sheer range of his thought), Thomas Hobbes (for his acute, analytical Renaissance mind, traumatized by the English Civil War), Karl Marx (a formidable, gregarious, cantankerous personality who lived in exile poverty), and finally Friedrich Nietzsche.

Rousseau: austere, paranoid, a difficult non-conformist, and Garrard's own specialist subject
Plato chosen because Socrates wrote nothing — inexhaustible range and depth
Hobbes: an analytical Renaissance mind who saw conflict as the human norm after the English Civil War
Marx: formidably well-read, gregarious, cantankerous, propped up financially by Friedrich Engels
Nietzsche rounds out the list as the great diagnostician

“one of them would have to be jean-jacques Rousseau... mainly because I've written about him and studied him so closely”
Graeme Garrard · 20:15

“Karl Marx... a formidable intelligent vastly well-read extremely broad ranging as a mind”
Graeme Garrard · 24:45

#philosophers#rousseau#hobbes#marx

Story38:30

Machiavelli Was Tortured — But Exile Hurt Him Most

Garrard recounts that Machiavelli suffered not so much for his thoughts as for his involvement in the brutal game of Renaissance Florentine politics. As a diplomat and civil servant on the losing side, he was removed from office, arrested, tortured, and exiled. Being a true political animal, he took the torture reasonably well but was devastated by exile from politics itself. Only afterward did he write The Prince.

Machiavelli was a diplomat and civil servant, not just a theorist
He backed the losing side and paid for it: office lost, arrested, tortured, exiled
He wrote amusing sonnets about being tortured
Exile from politics wounded him more than the torture did — he loved being in the fray
The Prince and his famous works were written after his fall and unpublished in his lifetime

“the bit that he had found the most difficult of all those things was being exiled being removed from politics because he was really a…”
Graeme Garrard · 39:30

#machiavelli#history#politics#the-prince

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway36:30

The Contrast Effect: Why You Need Tension to Feel Anything

Garrard connects Nietzsche's insight to the psychological concept of the contrast effect — the mind understands and experiences things through contrast. If you only ever lived at one temperature you'd have no concept of temperature at all. A life lived only one way is missing a key element for appreciating what's good and what's absent. Williamson extends this to self-imposed stress (cold showers, hard runs) resetting your baseline for discomfort.

The contrast effect: meaning and definition come from difference, not sameness
A single unvarying environment strips away the ability to appreciate it
Nietzsche was a better psychologist than philosopher, per Garrard; Freud admired him
Voluntary discomfort (a half marathon, a cold shower) reframes lesser discomforts as trivial
A frictionless life of comfort magnifies small problems until they grow to fill the space

“if you only lived in an environment that had one temperature you wouldn't really understand the concept... it's the contrast between them that gives meaning…”
Graeme Garrard · 37:00

“it is a brief period of stress which allows the body to reset its equilibrium to a better state”
Chris Williamson · 35:15

#psychology#contrast-effect#discomfort#resilience

Takeaway41:00

Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom — The Three Levels of Putting Ideas Into Action

The book distinguishes three ascending levels in turning knowledge into action: knowledge, understanding, and — at the highest tier — wisdom. Garrard argues political debate should aim to move from mere information toward wisdom, elevating the tone and language of public life. He is realistic that practising politicians won't become philosophers, but believes the surrounding context of political discourse can be raised.

Three levels: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom as the highest delivery to reality
Garrard wants public debate nudged from information toward wisdom
He does not expect politicians to be philosopher-kings
The goal is to elevate the tone and language of debate, not the individuals
Nearly all 30 thinkers profiled were themselves involved in real politics, not isolated intellectuals

“moving us... from information to knowledge to wisdom”
Chris Williamson · 50:15

“I do think there's scope for improving and elevating the tone of debate somewhat”
Graeme Garrard · 50:30

#wisdom#knowledge#political-discourse#leadership