Keep Calm and Carry On
Art of Governing - Calm
Harold Macmillan was the Prime Minister of Britain between 1957 and 1963, that is in the years after the Suez Crisis when the British Empire unravelled at an accelerating pace. He was the last British Prime Minister to be born in the Victorian era and to have served in World War One; his premiership ended in a dirty hit job amidst the Profumo sex scandal. He is indeed an intriguing figure, although as ever opinions are divided on him. The historian John Vincent wrote of him that:
He presented himself as a patrician, as the last Edwardian, as a Whig (in the tradition of his wife's family), as a romantic Tory, as intellectual, as a man shaped by the comradeship of the trenches and by the slump of the 1930s, as a shrewd man of business of bourgeois Scottish stock, and as a venerable elder statesman at home with modern youth. There was something in all these views, which he did little to discourage, and which commanded public respect into the early 1960s. Whether he was ever a mainstream Conservative, rather than a skilful exponent of the postwar consensus, is more doubtfu1.
It was that wistful, venerable elder and calm statesman who spoke his most memorable line. He was asked by an aide what was the largest challenge for a statesman. “Events, dear boy, events,” he replied. Staying calm and not losing your head amidst the fury of events is one of the essentials arts of governing. Whether MacMillan was artfully calm or gracefully negligent as the British Empire unravelled after World War Two I will leave to historians to debate. But his wistful call to respond calmly to the rush of events is surely the words of a sage.
Modern statesmen who pander to the news cycle, which is much complained of even though it is a product of government’s own communications machines, frequently misunderstand MacMillan’s sage advice. They see his words as demanding control of events, and not calm, mindful responses to events. In fear of being overrun events, they seek to get ahead of them to outrun time itself. But like Canute’s show of stopping the tides, this hyperactive panic is doomed to fail. How might our governments improve if there were a little more mindful, calm contemplation of the meaning of things, and rather less manic communication that our politicians are in control of things?
Event - The Mystery of Morrison’s Ministries
An injection of calm would surely have saved Scott Morrison, former Australian Prime Minister, from the scandal of his secret swearing-in to multiple Ministries during the long COVID pandemic emergency. It has been revealed by the still new Albanese government that Mr Morrison secretly had himself sworn-in as Minister for Health and other portfolios. In most cases he did not even reveal this act to the Ministers who he would shadow. Most strangely of all this act occurred several times after the initial, perhaps understandable, occasion in March 2020, when the real health and economic consequences were uncertain, and irresponsible modellers, commentators and pseudo-experts stoked fears of the most catastrophic effects.
There has been a lot of huffing and puffing about Ministerial responsibility, the Westminster system and democracy in response to the revelations of these secret actions by the former Prime Minister. Perhaps there should be more critical examination of the weakness of those institutions, as revealed by far more consequential use of executive powers during the pandemic. After all, except on one occasion, Morrison appears to have not used the powers he gave himself, at least not for anything other than intelligence gathering. He closed no playgrounds, and he did not boast of it. The real question is why did the Prime Minister feel the need to do this at all?
To me, the decision reveals a lack of calm in a crisis. It reveals the way that executive governments in Australia and around the world were affected by a norm cascade during the pandemic that encouraged hasty decision-making, overleaping Chesterton fences, and back-slapping zeal of action. This decision of the Prime Minister is made of the same cloth that dressed the National Cabinet, the abolition of all other federal Ministerial Councils, mandates without evidence, curfews without reason, spending without limit, testing without cause and emergency powers without end. How might our responses to COVID have been different if there were a little more mindful, calm contemplation of the consequences of decisions, and rather less manic presentation of executive our politicians as in control of things?
Book Recommendation
The Mahabharata is one of the great works of literature. It was composed perhaps in the era 400 BCE to 300 CE, and drew on earlier texts, perhaps back to 2000 BCE. It is both an epic and a statement of many forms of wisdom. The twelth book of the Mahabharata is titled ‘Tranquility’, and the first section of that book is titled ‘The Dharma of Kings’. There, after the great battle at the cetnre of the epic, the eldest of the Pandava brothers and ruler of the kingdom, Yudhisthira questions how he can go on. He wants to renounced his kingship, and fast himself to death, as his mind his besieged by doubts and grief at the destruction of so many lives in the great battle. In response, his family, counsellors, warriors and sages advise his on the wisdom and the art of governing, much of which is of enduring value. One venerable aged leader, Bhisma “concludes that the highest dharma of kings is to be able to endure both victory and defeat”2. This text may serve as both my page from history and gift of literature this week.
Podcast/Videocast Recommendation.
John Laughland gave a talk at a Forum for Democracy event on Ukraine, titled, “War between fiction and reality - John Laughland at the Ukraine Symposium”. The talk recounts some of the disparities between fictions and reality on Ukraine and the war over NATO’s boundaries, and begins to sketch an idea that the modern state is possessed by the creation of “narratives” or more correctly fictions. It prompts for me an idea about the modern state being a “theatre state” or a media-theatre state that I will develop further in my writing. The art of governing is not the tricks of spin.
What is Happening in My Writing World
I released the latest episode of The Burning Archive podcast on a Field Guide to Using History for Decision-Making. It talks about some practical methods to use history to stay calm and carry on when confronted by history shaking events, even those mythical ‘unprecedented’ events in our governing, working, and personal lives.
I also began the editing process for my second curated collection of prose from the last fifteen years, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat. You can see the unrevised version of this extended series of texts, responding to my experiences in government and Wallace Stevens’ poem ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ on my old yet cherished blog here.
And I began strategizing about how I will bring together the elements of my author brand and the direction of my podcast and YouTube channel after November
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Don’t forget you can buy my collected poems, Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems, 1996-2020 at Amazon and other online retailers.
And, in general, I am preparing for my pivot to life as an independent author - and retired government official - from November 2022. I will likely be taking my podcast and author platform in a new direction after that date. I will keep you posted on developments and how you can support me. Please share this newsletter with people you think might like it.
John Vincent, "Macmillan, Harold" in Fred M. Leventhal, ed., Twentieth-century Britain: an encyclopedia (Garland, 1995) p. 488.
The Mahabharata, trans John D. Smith (Penguin, 2009), p. 616.