the lump of indignation fallacy

Once more, Polly Toynbee steps in to protect the helpless state against the bullying individual:

The Porter view has become fashionable because it allows the middle classes to pretend to be victims, too. But it is decadence for mainly privileged people to obsess over imaginary Big Brother attacks on themselves, when others all around them are suffering badly from neglect by the state - or sometimes from real aggression by government. Indignation is precious, not to be squandered on illusory threats, but saved for real injustices.

Blimey: how to unpick this lot? I like the idea that there’s a finite lump of indignation which has to be saved for special occasions, non-renewable and somehow outside the self. The lump of indignation fallacy, you might say. I like the idea as well that you’re supposed to balance your income against your freedom.

I’ve always been mildly annoyed by Polly’s self-presentation as the reborn conscience of Labour when her active political life was spent in an organization trying to destroy it and replace it, to wit the SDP. She even stuck around for a time when it dwindled to being a kind of cult of David Owen. But I think that does give us a clue to her particular attitude to the state.

SDP types always presented themselves as the voice of moderation, but their actual objection to both left and right really seemed to lie in the fact that these uncouth barbarians actually wanted to force the state to do things; that they thought of it as a means not an end. No, says Polly, leave my precious state alone. It is my good intentions made manifest.

Her argument seems to be that the state may interfere with your liberties, but that simply proves it has the power to meet your needs. Conversely, the state may choose not to meet your needs, but to protest about its withdrawal of your liberties simply means that these needs will never be met. It never seems to occur to her that the preservation of freedom is a precondition for the ability to get the state to meet whatever needs you think should be met. It’s not a coincidence that nearly all states with political liberty are to a greater or lesser extent welfare states. People always vote themselves at least some of the keys to the treasury, and behind those votes there has historically been the kind of political agitation that only free societies permit. If you want a place where the individual pays for everything from primary school onwards, by contrast, try China.

crossposted at Liberal Conspiracy.

Comments

[dsquared]

Don't forget the role of middle class sado-masochism in this.

Things you are not allowed to do if you are middle class, according to the Guardian:

1. Watch association football
2. Protest about anything
3. Have sex
4. Buy the Guardian

it really does make you wonder how they get out of bed in the morning.

[redpesto]

"No, says Polly, leave my precious state alone. It is my good intentions made manifest."

Or as I like to put it: Polly thinks New Labour is (or should be) the social democratic government in her head.

Does New Labour actually have a theory of the state, btw? (That's assuming it was more than 'Whatever Mr Tony Wants') If it does, it sure ain't what Toynbee thinks it is.

[a very public sociologist]

New Labour have more of a feel for the state than a theory of it. That feel can be summed up as a vehicle for the three Ps: Power, Position, and Profit.

[ejh]

She writes well about equality, though.

But then the next week she'll always remember herself and write a piece attacking anybody outside the Westminster Village who undertakes any practical measures to increase it.

[Justin]

She also seems to be labouring under the bizarre illusion that the middle classes are somehow immune to the depredations of the state.

As a white middle class male who's been unemployed in the past, got a shitty hospital on the doorstep and a daughter who seems to be going backwards academically since joining the local junior school, I'd like to know where the bloody hell Polly gets her pilgarlic ideas.

[Vindico]

Spot on. My attempt at bursting her bubble of ignorance is here http://vindicovindico.blogspot.com/2007/12/oh-polly.html

[marcus warner]

Alas i take a slightly different view...

http://southpawgrammarwales.blogspot.com/2007/12/porter-vs-toynbee.html

[Alex]

Polly Toynbee is an egregious hack.