29 March 2011

No neutral ground

"If I am attacked and turn the other cheek, then I exemplify the Christian virtue of meekness. If I am entrusted with a child who is attacked, and I then turn the child's other cheek, I make myself party to the violence. ... A political leader who turns not his own cheek but ours makes himself party to the next attack. Too often this has happened. But by pursuing the attacker and bringing him, however violently, to justice, the politician serves the cause of peace, and also that of forgiveness, of which justice is the instrument." (The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat, Roger Scruton, 2002; page  38). 
Authority puts itself in the position where failing to do one's duty makes them party to the violence they are combatting. Authority takes the neutral middle out of the situation. The market allows for a space where win-win comes out of the economies of exchange. Authority is that situation where there must be a win-lose in one direction or the other, with no neutral ground to which to reatreat. 
  • The market has payment in the domain of goods and services as optional; 
  • Authority has payment in the domain of the persons of the actors as mandatory. 

No comments:

Post a Comment