Darwin & Authoritarianism

September 2008

I was having dinner with a friend tonight and we were discussing the failure of authoritarian Sparta to compete with democratic Athens in terms of art and philosophy. Is it true, we asked each other, that creativity is a product primarily of democracy?

On reflection, I asked my friend if he though today’s highly democratic western societies produced better art than in the 1800s when Beethoven, for example, was alive and German had a King. He agreed that music and visual arts appear to have taken a turn for the worst recently. In architecture the decline is less apparent, although one could argue the Gherkin is closer to pop art than it is to high art.

I asked: What about philosophy? Is it just me or has there been nothing really new since the fall of socialism? The link between free markets and Darwin was exciting, but how many really new things have we had since then? Every editorial in the Financial Times these days come from the same old liberal point of view that has been kicking around for years now. The only excitement is the recent atmosphere of panic developing as their long cherished theories unravel. I crave some really original thinking, the sort of stuff that’s ahead of the crowd and properly groundbreaking.

My friend said the trouble is that everything that could ever be thought has been thought, so nothing really new is possible anymore. This really got me thinking, so much so that I couldn’t sleep tonight and am now forced to write this quick article in middle of the night!

It seems true enough; after all my views on authoritarianism were espoused by Plato more than 2,000 years ago. Then it hit me…

Socialism fell not because it was evil or inhumane, but because it failed to appreciate the Darwinian structure of our world which constantly forces us to embrace pragmatism, change and the search for perfection. However, the lesson of the fall of socialism was primarily one of individuality and the selfish pursuit of personal gain. It was the triumph of materialism and the end of religion.

The next lesson, as we head into this new centaury, is also a Darwinian one; but now the take is quite different. Again idealistic notions are vanquished: equality as before, and now also cherished ideas of humanity and freedom. However, this time the lesson is not one of selfishness but rather of collective responsibility. The problems of democracy are the problems of selfishness; the resolution is in the greater good of the species; and this has religious parallels. I really believe this is something fairly new! Eureka!