Away from Zero
My time is short this week, and so my newsletter is compressed. It focuses on the dangers of Utopianism in any form.
On Not Targeting Zero
Many governments in recent years have adopted or been tempted by policies that aim towards the elimination of a harm - Zero Road Deaths, Zero Drug Abuse, Zero Medical Harm, Zero Suicide, Zero Family Violence, Zero Bias, Zero Workplace Accidents, Zero Waste, Zero Emissions, and, of course, Zero COVID. None of these policies have succeeded in their stated aims. They rarely change the needle. Why then do people advocate such policies, and why do people govern with them?
Zero policies are a form of bureaucratic utopianism. It is a pathology indeed; but it does not only affect bureaucrats. The pathology affects all who seek to define the world in their image, all those who believe that by declaring an aim you begin to shape reality. It affects politicians and NGOs, and is indeed commonest amongst them. The great appeal of such declarations of the elimination of sin is the moral claim it gives to the Utopian. To declare a problem solved, years in advance, is the easiest action available to governments. All it takes is political will. So it is a favoured tactic by NGOs appealing to political leaders’ sense of moral purpose. After all, what level of harm is morally justifiable if not zero? And the theatre state knows no-one will ever get around to checking on progress towards the goal.
You would think people skilled in the arts of government would avoid such unrealistic and immoderate claims. But in recent times, bureaucratic utopianism has spread from NGO and political circles into core government institutions. Today these institutions offer little to no resistance to this mind virus. The leadership of these institutions is now largely recruited from the same media, political and NGO circles. They have not patiently bored through hardwoods. They are true believers in the political cycle of big announcement, media manipulation, declaration of success by setting a target and spending a large round sum, and then moving on the next big thing.
We all suffer because of this distorted thinking. These goals are never achieved. Reality has its revenge. The extreme goals discourage the people who everyday must patiently bore through hardwoods of real problems, intractable difficulties and everyday suffering. The lack of realism among the goal-setters prevents the discovery of simpler compromises and negotiated improvements of factual circumstances. The utopianism of the bureaucrats subverts the character of their institutions. Truly, a decaying art of governing today is the aversion to utopianism.
Pod Recommendation - Subversive with Alex Kaschuta
One of the most interesting podcasts I have discovered is Subversive with Alex Kaschuta. In her own words, the podcast is about ideas that “do not neatly fit into the Overton window.” Broadly, she interviews a wide range of bricoleur thinkers who are trying to make sense of this broken world through post-liberal glasses. Although she speaks to a few too many Americans, I feel, and so brings that insular baggage, her subjects are generally lively and fascinating. Two highlights are her interviews with Ryzard Leguto and Theodore Dalrymple.
Book Recommendation - Bulgakov, White Guard
I am reading Mikhail Bulgakov, White Guard. It tells the story of the Russian civil war, with events in Ukraine featuring early in the story. Bulgakov captures the sheer madness of the political emotions unleashed with the collapse of Tsarism in the Russian Empire. That madness was especially vicious in the province known as Ukraine. That madness has returned to that region in the last 30 years.
My Writing World
I have relaunched the Burning Archive Youtube Channel and posted video editions of my first podcast, and two more recent episodes on Russian History and Mikhail Gorbachev. I have also done an introductory video on
On Saturday I also released part two of my podcast episode on Gorbachev.
I am now editing galley proofs of From the Burning Archive, and will be looking to release the print and e-book about 5 November.
And I am also working on 13 Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat, and planning some essays/short books on political virtue after democracy.