I had the pleasure of making new friends this week. I dined with a wonderful couple introduced by an old friend and client. Their home was beautiful. Their hospitality was spectacular. I was nervous about meeting complete strangers, but within an hour felt right at home.

It so happens they are wealthy people, but that’s not really the point. Yes, they could show me their rare classic sports car, factory-restored to 1960s glory. Yes, they had beautiful art, antiques and sculpture. Yes, they could entertain me – and the friends to whom they introduced me – in very high style. Yes, they had unrivalled views through their olive trees of some of the best parts of Southern France. What was most impressive however was their zest for life, which has nothing to do with wealth or luck. I have been in poor homes where the same spirit prevails (and rich ones where it doesn’t). To spend time with such people, rich or poor, is uplifting. It led me to ask myself, not for the first time, whether the real division in society is not between rich and poor, or left and right but between those who celebrate life’s possibilities and those who fear them?

If someone says he is left-wing, he means he puts people before profit and assumes his opponents do the opposite. If someone says he is right-wing, he means that private endeavour should take priority over public and assumes his opponents think the opposite. None of these claims and assumptions – like most of our political discourse – is fully true. Leftists need businesses to produce a surplus and rightists have ethical limits on what they would require of employees to produce one. Both right and left accept a boundary between the public and private spheres – though they would undoubtedly position it differently. As the man said, for every problem there is a solution that is simple, clean and wrong. Most of humanity’s self-inflicted catastrophes have arisen from our failure to appreciate that life is just too gloriously complicated to be understood without more nuanced thinking than most of us find comfortable.

It often seems to me the English Civil War never ended. On one side of the political divide are the Roundheads. They speak with the god-given authority of the righteous; brooking no opposition in telling us all how to live. They despise our pleasures and hedge them about with licensing, restrictions and – most lethally – taxes. They hector us to live better lives and would abolish Christmas and dancing if they had not heard of what happened when Cromwell tried it. They see evil (Cromwell would have said “the Devil”) in all who oppose them. The analogy is not perfect of course. These are puritans without their predecessors’ fear of God and, in consequence, also without their humility.

The analogy is as imperfect yet also useful for their opponents. You don’t have to be royalist to be cavalier (indeed Prince Charles strikes me as a right royal roundhead). It’s no accident that “cavalier” has acquired a negative connotation of recklessness in puritanical Britain, yet it also implies exuberance for life. True cavaliers don’t just eat and drink, they feast and carouse. They don’t see cars as just a mode of transport or art as mere decoration. They don’t see a malt whisky as just a drink or a cigar as just a smoke. They know they are, as my late grandfather used to put it, “only here for a look around” and they are determined to see and enjoy all they can. If they become politically excited it is most likely because they want to be left alone to do so.

The tone of political discourse in Britain belies the roundheads’ claims to be more caring. Perhaps it’s just because classical liberal thought has been so long in retreat, but much anti-socialist advocacy now has almost a pleading tone. Even in the blogosphere, where civility is sometimes in short supply, it is the left which sets the standards for sneering and contempt. Right-wing journalists and bloggers do not hold back in challenging what they see as error, but reading between the lines it’s clear they assume (as I do here) that their opponents mostly mean well. Yet left-wingers speak of their opponents as if they were far more than merely wrong. Consider this embittered piece on the royal wedding for example. I don’t know the couple concerned, but why on earth would I not wish them well? And why would I sneer at simple folk who delight in the celebratory optimism of this or any wedding? Or consider this piece of anti-Clarksonism by George Monbiot. Please don’t tell me you think his views would change if we discovered abundant oil supplies or invented better brakes. It is joy he hates, not the energy or safety costs of motoring. He sneers from imagined high ground and that sneer says far more than his words.

Yesterday the Belgian driver of a BMW M3 flashed by me on a French autoroute. Provoked by the sexy Pininfarina-designed rear end of my car into an impertinent desire to see her front in his rear-view mirror, he had given his little German engine a good thrashing. I said “this is for you, George” as I cancelled cruise control, hit the sport button and unleashed my Modena-made V8 in a brief but convincing retort. For those few illegal moments we experienced pleasures beyond Monbiot’s cramped imagination. As the M3 veered off towards Brussels its driver and I exchanged waves and smiles.

The New Roundheads are welcome to their miserabilism, but the cavalier in the rest of us is also entitled to a shot at happiness. The true test of civilisation is how such different human tendencies can live together in some approximation of harmony.

Tom Paine

Tom
Paine March 22, 2011 at 23:34

Thanks to all here for their comments and to Anna for giving my efforts
wider exposure than they usually get at my humble digital home.

2Mac March 17, 2011 at 21:15

I was once an idealist student type. I thought that everything could be
solved by socialism.

Then I realised the reality of implementing socialism was that instead of
the cream of the crop, the best performers and most able rising to the top. It
was the most Socialist, the fundamentalist Lefty, those who are Grievance
Inclined, the Political Sycophant that were given all the top jobs.

We replaced a society based on nepotism with one based on fuckwittism.

How did this change affect the country? We went from the most powerful,
militarily superior and richest nation on earth with lands all over the world
called called the Commonwealth and fearing not a single person.

To Trillion pounds in debt, military in tatars, ghettos full of Islamist
terrorists plotting our destruction while claiming benefits, housing estate
where 4 generations of a family have never LOOKED for a job let alone had one,
parts of the UK where English is no longer spoken, a public sector that thinks
bankrupting the Treasury will mean they still get their pension, Trade Unions
protesting because there is no money.

Socialism. Giving everyone an Equally Shit Life. (Except the actual Comrade
Leaders like that Cunt Crowe who are all living on 6 figure salaries and
pensions?)

Pericles March 17, 2011 at 10:33

Well, I used to give those of a left-wing bent the benefit of the doubt —
“… they assume … their opponents mostly mean well …” — but, as time passes and
the whole of society and its polity are rolled over by the apparently
insuperable tank of socialism, I find myself ever more convinced that the vast
majority of what is usually termed ‘the left’ is not merely misguided but
wilfully misanthropic.  My diction has changed accordingly.

ΠΞ

Roue le Jour
March 16, 2011 at 02:36

Excellent stuff.

Andrew Duffin
March 15, 2011 at 13:28

Nice to see you in the Racoonery, Tom.

Good post.

Hope all well with you now.

TheNoseyMole
March 15, 2011 at 12:27

Good post!
Being told to have fun is never as good as just having
fun.

Old Slaughter
March 15, 2011 at 11:19

Lovely.

I shall take ‘miserabilism’ away with me.

Dennis March 15, 2011 at 11:07

“…. but reading between the lines it’s clear they assume (as I do here)
that their opponents mostly mean well.”

I can see why you might think so. However, words and phrases like health
and safety, human rights and do-gooders almost always now connote evil intent.
You wouldn’t believe what they’ve done with ‘liberal’.

woodsy42 March 15,
2011 at 09:57

Excellently written TP.
I have long believed that the social divide has
little to do with ‘left’ or ‘right’ politics but is between the authoritarians
(Roundheads) and Libertarians (Cavaliers).
Tacitus should maybe consider
that those people lined up for redundancy have been betrayed by too much
dismally poor governance and interferring leadership. As always bad is bad, no
matter what its underlying values or where it comes from. If the govenrnance
structure is inept or corrupt, and I suggest both have been the case under
both main parties, it will fail people.
Authoritarian left wing nanny
stateism is not the preserve of the political left Labour party, although it’s
more prevalent there. Likewise a respect for independence and freedom has
nothing to do with modern Conservatism. Entitling people to take advantage one
over another, whether making millions at their expense or controlling their
thoughts and actions has nothing to do with being libertarian, it is simply
abuse.

Tacitus March 15, 2011 at 09:21

A couple of points here. Firstly, as one of those “left-wingers” it has
been my experience that within the blogosphere there is a great deal of
flaming coming from the right-wing too. Don’t get me wrong, I am not
suggesting the left are faultless, but let’s not pretend it is so one-sided.
More likely it is a disease within the media itself.

Secondly, I would like to take issue with teh notion that, to quote
Caedmon’s cat if I may, “attitudes to life count far more than
artificially-contructed socio-political fences. In my work sector
approximately 1,500 people are today serving their redundancy period and
because of changes in government policy are unlikely to find work in the
sector. Further large scale redundancies are expected in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the senior management team (ie the directors) are earning huge
sums, ranging from £250,000 to £1,5m per annum.

I just wonder in a few weeks time will those who are unemployed be worried
about their attitude to life, or whether they can pay their grocery bill? An
anxiety that will not affect the ‘fat cats’.

Daedalus X. Parrot March 15, 2011 at 23:32

To: Tom Paine,

Great post, loved the “miserabilism” bit.

To: Tacitus,

It was your Labour party that created the obscene mess that these
so-called cuts are trying to fix. In actual fact many analysts point out
that the current government is going to spend TWO PERCENT MORE each year,
every year, for the duration of this parliament, NO net cuts at all!: See here – Spending cuts that aren’t cuts).

I know that public sector workers are going to lose their jobs, and I
really sympathise with them, but it was Gordon Brown’s cavalier extravagance
in creating the better part of a million useless non-jobs in the public
sector that is to blame here, not the “wicked Tories”.

I sympathise with anyone about to lose their job. I would say this even
if I hadn’t actually suffered 18 months of unemployment recently myself. It
is horrid, especially if you have a young family to support.

Since 2008, hundreds of thousands of us private sector workers have been
made redundant or lost our jobs to the fast tracked visa workers that Labour
flooded Britain with, from countries like India. Yet you did not protest on
our behalf then.

I don’t seem to recall Tacitus or Eds Miliband and Balls or the unions or
the actor luvvies or the ukuncut fraternity protesting about myself and my
ex-colleagues’ descent into poverty when we were sacked in droves two and a
half years ago.

This, despite the fact that most of your Fabian fellow travellers are
wholly financed by the taxes that we private sector workers and our
ex-employers were forced to hand over.

Continuing Tom Paine’s Puritan/Cavalier theme, it is a bit ironic that us
“normal” tax-paying private sector workers have had many aspects of Puritan
“miserabilism” (great word Tom) forced on us via socialist diktat or
inflated taxes or bad governance:
– anti-smoking witch hunts
– the
closing down of pubs
– harsh suppression of many gentle forms of
Christian expression
– denying the English a fair democratic
representation
– the forced promotion of many extremisms and minorities
such as femonaziism and moslem-fascism
– whilst the English pay for their
own tuition, medicine and care of the old, they are unfairly forced to pay
for the Scots and Welsh to enjoy these same free of charge
– the
inducement of guilt (and huge price increases) because we need to use fossil
fuels for transport and heat

This is not s static list, it is still growing longer because the
socialists still thrive in the many quangos and the multiple tiers of
government, they are still churning out their torrent of puritanical
restrictions to inundate us with.

Yet the crazy, nasty unfairness of it all is that the creators of all of
this puritanical “miserabilism” are enjoying extravagant, cavalier life
styles of their own:
– they get gold plated pensions
– they apply for
or steal huge amounts in expenses
– they award themselves
inflation-busting pay increases
– they suffer little scrutiny
– many
have no fear of ever being sacked, even in these times of cuts, even if they
commit the foulest act that would get them sacked or arrested in a private
company
– taxpayer funded taxis to take many of them home most days
–
many get free creche facilities that are unheard of in the private
sector
– many are pampered by ludicrous perks such as “assistance in
healthy walking” that a private sector CEO would be sacked for if they
allowed it

Yet, I say it is we taxpayers who maybe deserve a few cavalier enjoyments
ourselves. We certainly deserve them more than the morally repugnant
politicians, greedy fat cat public sector execs and trade union barons.

The cavalier socialist classes have spent 13 years enjoying their plush
lifestyles while irresponsibly destroying our finances, culture and
legislation.

Tacitus, how can you still support a party that has abused or ruined
millions from the working class in the private sector?

UnRegenerate
March 16, 2011 at 22:50

TP – perfect.

Tacitus, the Left-Wing idiot:
Respond to, fisk & refute Dædelus
or, lacking that, prove that you are merely a left-wing troll – as brainless
as the rest of your rabble.

UnRegenerate
March 16, 2011 at 22:55

& which government, pray, permitted the disparity in Civil(?)
Service(?) pay between “senior management” and the “people” to arise?

JuliaM March 15,
2011 at 09:20

Spot on, Tom!

Caedmon’s
Cat March 15, 2011 at 08:40

Excellent post, TP. Attitudes to life count far more than
artificially-constructed socio-political fences. I look forward to your next
political tracts – they should go down a storm in the States…!

Sister Eva
Longoria March 15, 2011 at 08:12

I’d rather be Wrong But Romantic than Right but Repulsive

MelCW March 17,
2011 at 11:29

You are so right Sister Eva! Hear hear!

Gildas theMonk
March 15, 2011 at 07:32

Congratulations
Brilliant, insightful, erudite
Good to see that after
200 years or so you’re still in top form
G the M