Speaking of Enemies
David Mills on Good Men & Bad Opinions
The other day a friend sent me what he thought was an encouraging—or perhaps a convicting—message. It quoted G. K. Chesterton’s words in his Autobiography about his friendship with George Bernard Shaw. “I have argued with him on almost every subject in the world, and we have always been on opposite sides, without affectation or animosity. . . . It is necessary to disagree with him as much as I do, in order to admire him as I do; and I am proud of him as a foe even more than as a friend.” The writer continued:
These are golden words, given how often (and how easy) it is to personalize policy disagreements. The Political Temptation is to turn differences over issues into attacks on character. Motives, and not merely judgment, are called into question. But you know all that. Chesterton’s words speak of a different and sometimes more difficult, but a higher and a better, way. I thought Chesterton’s sentiments and example may encourage you. They did me.
They didn’t me. I think Chesterton’s natural charity, and his extraordinary innocence or naiveté, led him astray. In speaking of Shaw the way he did in the Autobiography and in other places, he said something untrue, which will have misled people who depended on his judgment.
Shaw was not a particularly admirable character, and Chesterton should not have let his listeners and readers think he was. And Shaw spoke for truly evil causes, eugenics and Stalinism, for two, and Chesterton should not have let his listeners and readers think these were views a good man could hold. He and Shaw were on opposite sides because Shaw was on the wrong side, and a side he should have known—must have, at some level, known—was wrong.
The Problem
The problem here is the same as that raised by the pro-life leader who tells the press that he respects the abortionist—which I examined in “Nice Killers” in the January/February issue of Touchstone—but this writer asserts that we ought to say such things as a matter of principle. It is “a higher, and a better, way” to speak well of bad men.
I can understand a pro-life leader, having to answer a reporter’s loaded question, and knowing that all the propagandists of darkness are waiting for any excuse to declare all pro-lifers to be fanatics and murderers, saying more than he ought to have said. I cannot understand someone who has the time to reflect on the matter, urging other Christians to lie.
To praise your opponents is not a “higher way” if they do not deserve praise. It is a lower way, because it is lying—or in Chesterton’s case, and in the case of many who think this way, sincere and naive misjudgment, which is no less wrong and no less misleading because sincere and naive. It is true that we ought not to impugn others’ motives and character when arguing with them, but it is not true that we ought to praise them instead.
To make the question practical: Would we want President Bush to speak about Bill Clinton or Al Gore as Chesterton spoke about Shaw? Would not such praise of men like them indicate either politically motivated dishonesty or considerable moral insensitivity?
For some reason, many modern people feel the need to personalize arguments, so that the only way to avoid abuse is praise. The classic rules of debate avoided this problem. The debater argued the points at hand without making any judgments one way or the other about his opponent. His opponent might be a saint or a villain, but the debater’s sole task was to prove him wrong with argument and evidence. One could have a gentlemanly argument with a good man or a bad man—though after the argument, one might invite the first for lunch and escort the second politely to the door, while keeping him away from one’s daughters and one’s silverware.
David Mills has been editor of Touchstone and executive editor of First Things. He edits the opinion page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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more from the online archives
32.6—November/December 2019
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25.6—Nov/Dec 2012
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Neo-Pagan Family Policies Doom Any Recovery by Allan C. Carlson
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