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| I see no sign that this politics of devotion is doing us any good | I see no sign that this politics of devotion is doing us any good |
| (7 months later) | |
| Given how much is at stake, it is reasonable to expect Theresa May to sound confident that Brexit is the best available path for the country, but she cannot. She says instead that it is the only path, of which the best must be made. In an interview last week, she declined to say it would be “worth it”. She has never repudiated her vote for remain and refuses to say how she would vote in a hypothetical rerun. | Given how much is at stake, it is reasonable to expect Theresa May to sound confident that Brexit is the best available path for the country, but she cannot. She says instead that it is the only path, of which the best must be made. In an interview last week, she declined to say it would be “worth it”. She has never repudiated her vote for remain and refuses to say how she would vote in a hypothetical rerun. |
| A more devious politician would simply pretend to be more enthusiastic. But May is no actor. She is a devout Christian, a clergyman’s daughter, which helps explain, I think, her ability to sustain total devotion to a plan, regardless of its material impact on the country. She finds comfort in submission to duty on a plane above the grubby temporal realm of economics and trade. In that respect, May is in tune with the spirit of current politics. | A more devious politician would simply pretend to be more enthusiastic. But May is no actor. She is a devout Christian, a clergyman’s daughter, which helps explain, I think, her ability to sustain total devotion to a plan, regardless of its material impact on the country. She finds comfort in submission to duty on a plane above the grubby temporal realm of economics and trade. In that respect, May is in tune with the spirit of current politics. |
| The decline in formal religious practice in Britain over recent decades does not prove an equal slump in religiosity. I sometimes suspect (although it is hard to demonstrate) that the total volume of faith-based allegiance in society hardly changes over time. It just sloshes between different objects of belief. Or maybe clerical and secular candidates thrive in fluctuating cycles. | The decline in formal religious practice in Britain over recent decades does not prove an equal slump in religiosity. I sometimes suspect (although it is hard to demonstrate) that the total volume of faith-based allegiance in society hardly changes over time. It just sloshes between different objects of belief. Or maybe clerical and secular candidates thrive in fluctuating cycles. |
| If so, we are deep in a devotional phase. Corbyn’s opinion on the divine is unrecorded, but the religious aspect to his support base is unmistakable. Not all Labour supporters fit the profile of the truest believers, but there is a phenomenal capacity among the hardcore for projecting absolute virtue on to the leader and unalloyed wickedness on to his detractors. The most common defence of Corbyn is that his critics are “smearing” him – a formula that rejects even the possibility that he is at fault. In this political cosmology, it makes no more sense to ask why someone might think Corbyn unsuitable to be prime minister than to ask why Darth Vader wants to control the galaxy. The Force has a dark side and a light side. That’s all you need to know. | If so, we are deep in a devotional phase. Corbyn’s opinion on the divine is unrecorded, but the religious aspect to his support base is unmistakable. Not all Labour supporters fit the profile of the truest believers, but there is a phenomenal capacity among the hardcore for projecting absolute virtue on to the leader and unalloyed wickedness on to his detractors. The most common defence of Corbyn is that his critics are “smearing” him – a formula that rejects even the possibility that he is at fault. In this political cosmology, it makes no more sense to ask why someone might think Corbyn unsuitable to be prime minister than to ask why Darth Vader wants to control the galaxy. The Force has a dark side and a light side. That’s all you need to know. |
| Emphasis on motive is essential to the difference between religious and secular modes of politics. In the religious mode, purity of intent is much more important than outcome. For a hardcore of leavers – by no means all – the paramount virtue in Brexit is the raw will that it be done. Not only is it inappropriate to quibble about the consequences, but doing so is an act of bad faith. Questioning the method is indistinguishable from hostility to the goal of national liberation, which is tantamount to treason. | Emphasis on motive is essential to the difference between religious and secular modes of politics. In the religious mode, purity of intent is much more important than outcome. For a hardcore of leavers – by no means all – the paramount virtue in Brexit is the raw will that it be done. Not only is it inappropriate to quibble about the consequences, but doing so is an act of bad faith. Questioning the method is indistinguishable from hostility to the goal of national liberation, which is tantamount to treason. |
| Religiosity is surging on the other side, too. There is a strain of remainer thinking that has elevated the pro-European cause to a totem of abstract liberal virtue increasingly removed from the messy reality of EU institutions, treaties and competing interests. In this tribe, the whole Brexit concept is contaminated by what is remembered as a devious, dishonest and xenophobic campaign. Someone who believes above all that the referendum result expressed mass credulity and racism will find it hard also to accept that it was a valid democratic verdict. | Religiosity is surging on the other side, too. There is a strain of remainer thinking that has elevated the pro-European cause to a totem of abstract liberal virtue increasingly removed from the messy reality of EU institutions, treaties and competing interests. In this tribe, the whole Brexit concept is contaminated by what is remembered as a devious, dishonest and xenophobic campaign. Someone who believes above all that the referendum result expressed mass credulity and racism will find it hard also to accept that it was a valid democratic verdict. |
| Of course, secular and religious styles are not mutually exclusive. They have always coexisted to some degree in politics, cutting across traditional party boundaries. Nor do they necessarily map on to patterns of organised worship. There are devout MPs whose faith is private and whose politics are studiously pragmatic. There are atheists who pursue ideological agendas with the fervour of a 16th-century Anabaptist. Politics necessarily contains both types. It would be perverse to care only about policy outcomes without interrogating the motives of those who promise them. And it is human nature, when all candidates promise to do good things, to take a gut reading of who is and isn’t in it for good reasons. That judgment is formed in a tangle of cultural biases from which none of us is immune. | Of course, secular and religious styles are not mutually exclusive. They have always coexisted to some degree in politics, cutting across traditional party boundaries. Nor do they necessarily map on to patterns of organised worship. There are devout MPs whose faith is private and whose politics are studiously pragmatic. There are atheists who pursue ideological agendas with the fervour of a 16th-century Anabaptist. Politics necessarily contains both types. It would be perverse to care only about policy outcomes without interrogating the motives of those who promise them. And it is human nature, when all candidates promise to do good things, to take a gut reading of who is and isn’t in it for good reasons. That judgment is formed in a tangle of cultural biases from which none of us is immune. |
| This helps explain how May withstood her calamitous election campaign last year. Many people despise the choices she has made, but her personal integrity is rarely impugned. She is accused of coldness, but not laziness or corruption. This is a source of resilience even when the product of her toils is a bit rubbish. There isn’t much to show beyond Brexit, and the Brexit she is negotiating is shabby. She is supported by a bedrock of belief that the existence of a deal – any deal – satisfies a higher calling. | This helps explain how May withstood her calamitous election campaign last year. Many people despise the choices she has made, but her personal integrity is rarely impugned. She is accused of coldness, but not laziness or corruption. This is a source of resilience even when the product of her toils is a bit rubbish. There isn’t much to show beyond Brexit, and the Brexit she is negotiating is shabby. She is supported by a bedrock of belief that the existence of a deal – any deal – satisfies a higher calling. |
| Jeremy Corbyn’s standing is also protected by a widespread belief in the earnest passivity of his nature. That is why accusations of terrorist sympathy have had limited impact. The charges simply don’t tally with the image of a mild-mannered, vegetarian idealist. His inner ethical life is judged quite separately from the company he has kept. | Jeremy Corbyn’s standing is also protected by a widespread belief in the earnest passivity of his nature. That is why accusations of terrorist sympathy have had limited impact. The charges simply don’t tally with the image of a mild-mannered, vegetarian idealist. His inner ethical life is judged quite separately from the company he has kept. |
| If the measure of success is wanting Brexit enough, it is hard to say May is failing. Likewise, it is hard to debate Corbyn’s qualities as a leader with people for whom the key test is his ability to be Corbyn. This is where excess religiosity in politics tends: polarisation into tribes, defined by intense, mutually reinforcing suspicion. It is almost impossible to persuade someone who has decided in advance not to trust the words of a non-believer. | If the measure of success is wanting Brexit enough, it is hard to say May is failing. Likewise, it is hard to debate Corbyn’s qualities as a leader with people for whom the key test is his ability to be Corbyn. This is where excess religiosity in politics tends: polarisation into tribes, defined by intense, mutually reinforcing suspicion. It is almost impossible to persuade someone who has decided in advance not to trust the words of a non-believer. |
| This is the challenge to those of us who are styled as “moderates” or “centrists”. The very labels speak of tactical orientation relative to someone else’s moral position. To the ideologically devout, appeals for moderation from the centre sound like demands to compromise on principle, to retreat from the right path for the wrong reason. In a climate where the religious mode dominates, the secular style is cast as soulless, insincere, lacking moral anchor. | This is the challenge to those of us who are styled as “moderates” or “centrists”. The very labels speak of tactical orientation relative to someone else’s moral position. To the ideologically devout, appeals for moderation from the centre sound like demands to compromise on principle, to retreat from the right path for the wrong reason. In a climate where the religious mode dominates, the secular style is cast as soulless, insincere, lacking moral anchor. |
| But moderation is not just a dilution of someone else’s ideal. It is the discipline that tests the merits of one idea against a sincere evaluation of its opposite. And the centre is not just a mid-point on the spectrum from left to right, liberal to conservative. These days it is better understood as a culture and a habit of mind. It is the place where holders of divergent opinions can meet without becoming implacable enemies. | But moderation is not just a dilution of someone else’s ideal. It is the discipline that tests the merits of one idea against a sincere evaluation of its opposite. And the centre is not just a mid-point on the spectrum from left to right, liberal to conservative. These days it is better understood as a culture and a habit of mind. It is the place where holders of divergent opinions can meet without becoming implacable enemies. |
| • Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist | • Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist |
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