Washington Times, 1 February 1995.
Q& A with John Ralston Saul
SCENE: A full-house appearance at Politics & Prose Bookstore inspired some pointed questions about Washington’s current political vocabulary as observed by a steely-eyed neighbor from the north.
PERSONALITY: Canadian author John Ralston Saul, 47, recently named among 100 contemporary “visionaries” by Utne Reader magazine, has been described as “an erudite Toronto gadfly.” He describes himself as an anti-elitist disciple of humanism, the definition of which takes up several pages in his new book, “The Doubter’s Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense.” “Free Trade” and “Progress” also have lengthy entries in that alphabetized Free Press tome so eclectic that even “Ronald McDonald,” dandruff” and “kiss” are included.
CREDO: To increase citizen participation in government and make people think more carefully about the workings of present-day democracy. And to raise hackles by going against the grain whenever possible.
Q: What does the word “contract” convey to you, as in “Contract with America?”
A: There are two kinds of contracts. The most positive is the social contract, which has nothing to do with economics or law, but about how people will live and work together in society.
Increasingly, the commercial contract has become the model, replacing the idea of an agreement among citizens about how to live together; it has become a reflection of interests in the marketplace that are fairly selfish. Without the idea of disinterest, as opposed to self-interest, there can be no democracy.
Q: What about “national debt”?
A: Our new religion is the marketplace; instead of sin and the devil, we have the national debt. But remember that the American Declaration of Independence was based on a refusal to honor debts incurred in seven years of war protecting the Colonies; it was a form of renouncing debt obligations. The United States is a leader in becoming rich by not paying debts. Maybe there are other questions and other ways to solve the problem other than scaring people with this new ideology.
Q: “Marketplace”?
A: As amusing and charming as a risque Peter Pan, endlessly believing in true love yet seeking the pleasure of free love, endlessly re-creating its own virginity, unequipped with memory or common sense, which is its strength and its weakness. It is, of course, a very good thing. Without it we are reduced to being exploited by personal or bureaucratic absolutism. But is it a sufficient foundation upon which to build a society?
In all earlier civilizations, it should be remembered, commerce was treated as a narrow activity and by no means the senior sector in society.
Q: A nasty five-letter word of insult that begins with “b”?
A: That’s what I call an ad hominem, the obverse of hero worship, indicating an unwillingness to deal with content, which is an old-fashioned courtiers’ game typical of imperial China and 18 th-century France. Modern lobbyists resemble courtiers.
Public figures have complained for decades about the growing tendency to judge them by violent personal attacks, often aimed at their private lives….If public figures paid a little more attention to history, they would know that their predecessors led a much rougher life.
Q: What is one book you would recommend for a “citizens’ reading list”?
A: The collected writings of Thomas Jefferson in one volume, which I believe exists in a Modern Library edition. I’m not a hero worshipper, but the most successful modern public figure in the West still is Jefferson and his idea of balanced in humanism and openness. These are the best of what was in the American ideal.
Q: Why do you shun optimism? You’re often so down on things – you even call air conditioning” an efficient and highly regarded method for spreading disease.”
A: Optimism, like patriotism, is the public tool of scoundrels and ideologues.
Q: Did you find anything to cheer about in American election results?
A: People sent out the message they are dissatisfied with the way technology is treating them; it could result in a left turn next time.
- Anne Geracimos
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