Saturday, January 28, 2006

Dalrymple on Saturday

When history is dangerous, the present is dangerous.

It is amazing what a couple of assassinations can do.

On Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. I too remember seeing young men (Leicester City supporters at the Hawthorns) in the white boiler suits, umbrellas, bowler hats and eyeliner of the film. Burgess really was a great futurist. His ideas of the Pelagian and Augustinian governments, as expressed in The Wanting Seed, are relevant today.

Augustinian governments believe in Original Sin, that man is naturally given to vices which need to be checked. Tend to be hierarchical and militaristic.

Pelagian governments believe in Man’s perfectibility and innate goodness. As this fails to produce the perfect society, so do initially liberal Pelagians tend to turn towards coercion, more laws and greater police powers. Remind you of anything ?

‘’Pelagius is fond of police,
Augustine loves an army’’

It’s fascinating to see that the ideas of Rousseau, the hippies and the Guardianistas were being expressed nearly two thousand years ago by Pelagius.

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