Action and Responsibility

Orwell offers a highly quaified appreciation of the then (and still) politically incorrect Kipling. He insists that one must admit that Kipling is “morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting.” Still, he says, Kipling “survives while the refined people who have sniggered at him seem to wear so badly.” One reason for this is that Kipling “identified himself with the ruling power and not with the opposition.”

“In a gifted writer,” Orwell remarks, “this seems to us strange and even disgusting, but it did have the advantage of giving Kipling a certain grip on reality.” Kipling “at least tried to imagine what action and responsibility are like.” For, Orwell explains, “The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.” Furthermore, “where it is a permanent and pensioned opposition, as in England, the quality of its thought deteriorates accordingly.”


The above passage is taken from an article by William Kristol in today's New York Times called, "Democrats Should Read Kipling." In it Kristol highlights George Orwell's (by no means a conservative) appreciation of Rudyard Kipling. I think the main thrust of the article is applicable, not only to situations where political parties are involved, but to the current milieu of critique birthed by postmodern philosophies (which are actually nothing more than literary and historical criticisms) 40 some odd years ago. If everyone would simply ask the question "‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’" I think we'd have a more civil and thoughtful society. Unfortunately, there's a significant pseudo-intellectual class, influenced by the aforementioned anti-philosophies, who are content to be discontent while doing not much of anything but immaturely defining themselves by who they are not. The result is a pervasive sarcasm and irony which serves to frustrate action and responsibility in otherwise conscientious people.