The Relationalist Manifesto p. 2 - Relationalism

Continuing with the book advertisement/manifesto for David Brooks' Aspen project, we have the Gallant to the previously submitted Goofus ideology, which bears the clumsy name "relationalism." Really, Dave? What you're talking about has a name already - communitarianism. I've heard you use it, even. If I didn't know better, I would swear that this was some shallow attempt to grab cheap glory by claiming to have discovered something that political scientists have been discussing for decades.

Whatever, let's just get this out of the way.

1. The revolution will be moral, or it will not be at all. Modern society needs a moral ecology that rejects the reigning hyper-individualism of the moment. We need to articulate a creed that puts relation, not the individual, at the center, and which articulates, in clear form, the truths we all know: that we are formed by relationship, we are nourished by relationship, and we long for relationship. Life is not a solitary journey. It is building a home together. It is a process of being formed by attachments and then forming attachments in turn. It is a great chain of generations passing down gifts to one another.

"Revolution" - for God's sake, you guys are curating video clips. In any case, this sets up the next set of points spelling out the basis for something that is entirely distinct from the many, many forms of communitarianism chronicled in academic circles and by contemporary journalists. Most interesting to me is the last line, the "great chain of generations," a word choice that recalls the medieval philosophical construct called the great chain of being that envisioned all life as a giant hierarchy with God at the top and dirt at the bottom. Humans were in the middle but, to steal from Orwell, some were more equal than others.

2. The hyper-individualist sees society as a collection of individuals who contract with one another. The relationalist sees society as a web of connections that in many ways that precede choice. A hyper-individualist sees the individual as an self-sufficient unit. The relationalist says, A person a node in a network; a personality is a movement toward others.

Again, this is absolutely an argument against capitalism - not "consumerism" or "unbalanced capitalism," but the very idea of an economic system built on competition. Don't worry, Dave has more Commie-off later in the list.

3. As a child, each person’s emotional and spiritual foundation is formed by the unconditional love of a caring adult. Each person’s personality and character is formed by the dance of interactions between herself and a loving adult. “We” precedes “me.”

Unlike Brooks, I've never given a speech on behaviorism (Twice!) so all I have is what I've read, but I'm pretty sure that this is scientifically bullshit. The development of empathy is a process with many steps. For example, to feel bad for another person's pain, you must first understand that others feel pain like you do, attributing your own experiences to them - a trait known as theory of mind. Infants simply don't possess this understanding from birth. We're all born knowing only ourselves and other things come with time. I've heard actual experts on early childhood development say that children pass through a phase of understanding that we would call sociopathy if held by an adult.

Maybe I'm dead wrong - after all, this man was paid to give speeches on science.

5. The best adult life is lived by making commitments and staying faithful to those commitments: commitments to a vocation, to a family, to a philosophy or faith, to a community. Adult life is about making promises to others, being faithful to those promises. The beautiful life is found in the mutual giving of unconditional gifts.

You have no idea how hard it is not to swing with all my might at these slow pitches.

6. Relationalism is a middle way between hyper-individualism and collectivism. The former detaches the person from all deep connection. The latter obliterates the person within the group, and sees groups as faceless herds. The relationalist sees each person as a node in a thick and enchanted web of warm commitments. She seeks to build a neighborhood, nation and world of diverse and creative people who have made commitments in a flowering of different ways, who are nonetheless bound together by sacred chords.

And here's the Commie-off, the obligatory prayer to the God of Bothsiderism. I must point out one amazing line - "thick and enchanted web of warm commitments." It reminds me of Megan McArdle's "oceanic pity," but unlike McArdle I don't think this is attributable to a lack of empathy as much as it is a lack of talent.

7. Relationalism is not a system of ideas. It is a way of life. Relationalism is a viewpoint that draws from many sources, from Edmund Burke and Martin Luther King, Jr., from Martin Buber and Dorothy Day and Walt Whitman, from Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Martha Nussbaum, and Annie Dillard to Gandhi and Josiah Royce.

"Not a system of ideas," i.e. not an ideology. People with ideologies are wrong and stupid; we have common sense, we're above that. So were all these people whom I will pretend would have supported me. And yes, of course Burke is on this list, and putting him next to MLK (a socialist, mind) is really special.

8. The hyper-individualist operates by a straightforward logic: I make myself strong and I get what I want. The relationalist says: Life operates by an inverse logic. I possess only when I give. I lose myself to find myself. When I surrender to something great, that’s when I am strongest and most powerful.

So what, exactly, have you given, Dave?

Next time: How to become a person.