A political tradition which argues its view of human rights as properties to be understood only in the continuum of a particular history, as having no meaning in vacuo, has many advantages not to be found in what Professor Oakeshott has rightly labeled “the teleocratic regime.” A societas seems to me preferable to a universitas–at least for free men. The only freedom which can last is a freedom embodied somewhere, rooted in a history, located in space, sanctioned by a genealogy, and blessed by a religious establishment. The only equality which abstract rights, insisted upon outside the context of politics, are likely to provide is the equality of universal slavery. ~M.E. Bradford, A Better Guide Than Reason
Daniel,
Given the post last week concerning “consuming” tradition, I would like to hear your comments on this comment by Bradford. It seems that freedom and order will always exist in some tension with one another. One of the weaknesses of traditional societies, it seems to me, is that they usually act on the side of order more than on the side of freedom, and thus cause dissatisfaction and/or apathy. Now both order and freedom are needed in human affairs, but Bradford’s concept of rights here as historical rights had some problems as it developed during the course of Southern History. The largest social problem was the issue of slavery, of course. By the 19th century, southern culture tolerated less and less free discussion of the slavery issue. It seems to me that this is a case in which a laudable traditional culture abandons freedom and reason to maintain order — an order which resulted in the extraordinary sufferings of millions of souls. I agree that a theory of natural rights not grounded in history can produce untold human evil and destruction, but how do you account for the need for cultures to remain flexible enough to deal with the underlying social inequities that always arise because of human sinfulness? It seems to me that rightly or wrongly the natural rights tradition was one means by which to deal with this scenario.