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A more in- vidious ground is scarcely to be found any where within the field of politics. Enemiesencompass the traveller on every side.
But, beforeweareallowed z to wander off with any general or less pointed application of the idea of utility, Bentham comes forward to urge his own. Utility is not just another general principle in terms of which men can rationalise their whims or displeasures. This brings his discussion of utility to an end. There is no more mention of it, even though there is still a n entire chapter following.
His last, peace-making comments in this fourth chapter seem to me like nothing so much as designed to show that however much utility may dictate the terms zyxwv of resistance, it need never really come to that. He meant to give the ruler a clear alter- 1 Quoted in Warren Roberts, Jr. There was danger in that quietism, danger in that it left the direction and fate of political society to chance and to events. No ruler who felt that everything was as it should be, would be likely to give much thought to creative direction.
Quietism evades the ultimate dilemma of the prince which is contained in the simple directive: to continue to govern demands that one governs zyxw weN. Criticism is not to be feared, but rather welcomed. Their danger comes from the predic- table bursting out of pent-up emotions after a too long suppression under the heavy hand of dead institutions. Men do not rebel against the Law, anyway, but against persons.
This is even more true where the Law has been unnaturally deified and closeted so far from critical examin- ation. The critic-reformers who would prune old growth and prop up vital limbs are involved zyx in actions which take their motivation from the cool detachment of reason and utilitarian assess- ment. Useful and productive institutions can safely withstand attack. From such an attack it is not the institution itself, if well grounded, that can suffer. For if the institution is in truth a beneficial one to the community in general, it cannot but have given an interest in its preser- vation to a number of individuals.
It is only among the corrupt that the desire to protect corrupted institutions can have deep roots. It is among these men alone that one finds real fear of reform. And it is now with full knowledge of the risk entailed that any sovereign would continue to con- script his advisers from their ranks or make much of the guidance they might provide in matters of law or morality.
Bentham senses an advantage and presses it. The reader, having got through to these senti- ments, is urged, then, to see reform as inevitable, in any event. It is the ways of things political. The ruler must come to appreciate the very important difference, then, between a rhetoric which only appears to defend and protect, and the underlying realities of argument and reason upon which, finally, all rhetoric aside, actions zy will be taken.
It would be small comfort to find, after the smoke has cleared, that what one had put so much faith in was merely words. Nor is there any truth in the euphemisms by which established institutions are painted up.
The catalogue of infirmities found in Blackstone and his false concerns over the danger of zyxwvuts reform could go on for some time, but to no further purpose. The sentiment which Bentham zyxwv means to get across is clear-nothing of real significance is threatened by the reform impulse. Finally, the political theory supporting that impulse in Bentham is one certainly not designed to add to the anxiety already in the mind of the truly perceptive ruler.
The power of government Bentham would leave essentially unmolested. That is really a very little difference he has inserted there. The power of government is not crucial to the distinction between free and despotic. Power is not the target of reform. Power is secure. But power does not in and of itself offer any guarantee if oppression has driven the populace to a desperation from which they consider resistance alone can relieve them.
Not the most despotic controls would then be of any value in putting off the inevitable end. The wise ruler must come to terms with the truth that his power is but a reflection of the habit of the dispo- sition to obedience among his subjects.
Realising, too, that that habit is no eternal or necessary thing, he will seek to do whatever is necessary to maximise the happiness and contentment of his people. Works of great reputation have the capacity to enthral. Reputation adds weight. Being a war, an uprising, his attack is merciless and relentless.
He reduces Blackstone to merc rhetoric, flowery sounds which add nothing to judgement. He ridicules Blackstone by a knifeedged reductio adabsurdurn, mocking, parodying, subjecting it all to bitter irony, sarcasm, and just plain spleen.
It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.
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