Madam, – I never know whether Fintan O’Toole is ignorant or just being disingenuous (Opinion, August 3rd). A cursory reading of political history over the last 200 years shows that both sides of politics have been equally correct and equally mistaken on political, social and philosophical issues since the terms left and right were first coined during the French Revolution. Yet whenever I read Fintan O’Toole, he’s the left wing equivalent of Admiral Nelson putting a telescope to his eye patch and claiming “I see no ships”.
Half the political history of the last 200 years is just erased from the horizon. I don’t care what Michael McDowell believes, but Fintan O’Toole’s mischievous and brazen attempt to portray one side of politics as the perennial villains while the other side are always correct is nonsense.
Contrary to Fintan O’Toole’s claim that “a republic is a political community in which public resources are used for the common good” – a classic straw man ambit claim if ever there was one – the traditional definition of a republic is rule for the people by the people.
The first modern republic, that of late 18th century France, had as a motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, including two irreconcilable aspirations — liberty and equality.
You can have one or the other but not both. They cancel each other out. In order for equality to be realised liberty must be restrained — the history of the last 100 years is a warning against the imposition of equality as an ideal.
Finally, Fintan O’Toole ridicules Michael McDowell’s claim that “a dynamic liberal economy like ours demands flexibility and inequality in some respects to function”. This claim is not the ravings of a right wing demagogue but simple common sense.
Everything in life, not just the economy, operates on this principle. Without conflict the world would grind to a halt. The great achievement of republican government is that it minimises conflict to generally acceptable levels. – Yours, etc,