Events | 2010.08.31
Liberal guilt? Good for you | Theo Hobson
It\'s right to be anxious. To be completely fatly smugly relaxed about our problematic world is the definition of the Tory soul
A basic British political division is not between left and right, or liberal and conservative, but between Schlegel and Wilcox. What separates the two families of EM Forster\'s novel Howards End is that the Schlegels worry about how to make the world fairer, with occasionally embarrassing consequences, while the Wilcoxes worry about their stocks and shares. In other words, the Schlegels are afflicted by the complaint we sneeringly call liberal guilt.
Sneer ye not. Liberal guilt is nothing to be ashamed of. It\'s really just the political expression of that rather old-fashioned thing, conscience.
To "suffer" from liberal guilt means that you are somewhat uneasy about all sorts of awkward things that it is tempting to harden your heart against, like global injustice, global warming, racism. It means that you are troubled by the stubborn persistence of our class system, though you personally have done fine by it. It means you sometimes worry that you might be prejudiced against all sorts of people. It means that your vague patriotism is laced with uncertainty about whether our ancient constitution is able to be truly inclusive. It means, for goodness sake, that you fail to be completely fatly smugly relaxed about this problematic world we inhabit. Is that really so shameful and wet, so laughably mentally effeminate?
If this little parade of privileged anxiety fills you with derision, then you are a Tory. Rejection of liberal guilt is the very cornerstone of the Tory soul, the unofficial definition of Tory. "Look how relaxed I am about my place at the feast," says the Tory. "Regard my sense of entitlement. Inequality and privilege are nothing to be ashamed of; they are part of life, and life is good, n\'est-ce pas ? So please: no more strident student-union hectoring stuff about how evil the \'system\' is." In other words, Toryism is a posture of world affirmation. It works by rubbishing reformist angst, painting it as neurotic hypocrisy. The phrase liberal guilt is obviously a Tory coinage. It ought to be called "the necessary self-accusing anxiety accompanying liberal idealism". Or something.
This is the thing that unites every sort of Tory, from Norman Tebbit to Nick Boles . They all find liberal guilt risible and dangerous. Its risibility is highlighted by fat jocular types like Boris Johnson. Its peril is highlighted by wide-eyed humourless skinny types like Thatcher. Beware the "socialist" puritans, they say, who want the world to be radically different, who dream dreams and scheme schemes, and worry that someone somewhere is having fun. Don\'t be anxious about your status as a comfy bourgeoisie, but blumming well rejoice in it, you chump!
On Any Questions recently, someone asked the panellists whether they intended to cut down on their meat consumption, for environmental reasons. There were a couple of hesitant, nondescript answers and then Ken Clarke calmly guffawed at the whole idea. Like I\'m going to cut down on my merry feasting, he basically said. And the audience found his cavalier confidence sort of reassuring, and laughed. Here, it struck me, is the very nub of the Tory soul: it enjoys showing its lack of angst. And such confidence impresses people. Let us be ruled by these Nietzschean strong souls, we cravenly feel, who are too busy living well to entertain cowardly moral scruples.
There is really no excuse for failing to feel liberal guilt about global warming. No excuse. It is a fact that our affluent lifestyles are endangering the planet, to some maddeningly unknown degree. What is wrong with someone who is not made uneasy by this? What is wrong with someone who affects (or, worse, genuinely feels) indifference to this fact, and sneers at the muddled, hesitant, hypocritical responses of the conscience-pricked rest of us? Of course we don\'t know if cutting down on meat will really help things, and make future flooding of distant lands less likely. But those farting cows are a problem, and maybe one should sponsor slightly fewer of them. To be a bit anxious about this is just to acknowledge the strange moral universe we seemingly inhabit.
Similarly, there is no excuse for failing to feel liberal guilt about race and class. The fact is that it is excessively hard for the vast majority of people from ethnic minorities, and from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, to attain the cushy lifestyle that one was born into and takes for granted. One can either react to this fact by pretending that one\'s good fortune is one\'s natural right, and by boasting that one has "worked hard" for it (well done, for turning up to banker school, or to that internship your uncle wangled); or one can react with humble awareness that our social world is still packed with injustice – an awareness known as liberal guilt.
Liberal guilt is one of the key factors in the ebb and flow of British politics. New Labour was propelled by a wave of liberal guilt. As it ran aground, fat jocular Toryism was limbering up in the wings, and learning to mask its braying tones with a new liberal urbanity. It found a new figurehead (Boris), and a soberer practitioner, and it rides high.
In Howards End, Margaret Schlegel eventually forms a surprising coalition with Mr Wilcox. It won\'t last; it can\'t. You\'re either a Schlegel or a Wilcox. And I assure you that Schlegelism will bounce back.
• This article was amended on 30 August 2010, removing the apostrophe from EM Forster\'s novel Howards End
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]/29/liberal-guilt-good-for-you
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