Tuesday April 8 2014 LSJ 375 Day 3 The Tragedy of Power Crime is a human phenomenon and is not naturally occurring to observe it the way we frame any phenomenon in the world depends on the stance we take Phenomenology the study of Phenomenon The approach that we have taken today is called phenomenology Phenomenology seeks to understand things in themselves beyond our descriptions and assumptions Phenomenology does this by suspending or bracketing those description and assumptions in order to see what underlies them The ideal result is a more authentic understanding of the things themselves we well as of the enormous power of our descriptive practices Exoticizing the Familiar is an example of phenomenological approach to everyday social practices is unlikely we will ever get it with absolute clarity and sincerity no matter how hard we will try to capture events actions people in their entirety it meaningfully or guratively crush the things you dealing with how do you apply power in a meaningful and effective way but not to Phenomenology discussion take all the things away that we might intuitively say think or believe and look at what is left getting an authentic awareness of what is actually going on the way you order and arrange the world is not always headful of the actual order of the world dont assume things can only be framed in one way you will lose lots of insights and opportunities Politics as a Vocation Vocation is calling voice your vocation is not just your job but is a calling Something you are drawn too your mission It is entirely true and a fundamental fact of all history that the ultimate product of political activity frequently indeed as a matter of course fails utterly to do justice to its original purpose and may even be a travesty of it eber 78 It is a matter of course a regularity accomplish as a set of political course even with best intentions political activity will mess up what it is set to A nation or a person can forgive damage to its interests but not an assault of its honor least of all in the spirit of sanctimonious self righteousness Weber 79 1 Tuesday April 8 2014 its honor or loss of dignify Nations lose things when they lose a war but cannot recover from an assault of their personal interests but what they do not tolerate is an assault on their honor This applies with equal force at the street level individual people can take hits to There is no way you can have a CJS that doesn t in ict harm or pain on people or it would not be a CSJ How do you go through these transactions where people are harmed without assaulting peoples harm or dignity There are essential social and histroical realities that aconsititute the foundation of politics about politics apply to all and any political entities UOA is the state these realities exist apart from any speci c ideology or policy the things he says Weber s particular focus is politics in the context of the modern nation state If you want to engage in political activity you will have to make tough moral decisions If you are playing on that eld you will have blood on your hands That is the world of politics slide 2 universal to all states rather than by its ENDS which are unique to each state To be understood properly the state must be de ned by its MEANS which are you can not answer in a clear cut way what peoples ends are What de nes a state is that it is based on force Every state is based on force gets to decide when where why force is used within a given geographic territory The state is a community that successfully clams a monopoly on force the state monopoly on force there are some states and countries that are unable to control the power either between states or between groups of people within a state 33 Politics means to strive for a share of power or to in uence the distribution of what makes politics unique is that politics is linked to violence In most of the world or during most political transactions violence rarely occurs If violence did not realm around in the background then we wouldn t be talking about politics politics is the domain where violence rarely occurs but if things get tense enough then violence comes into play even if you don t have to commit it ourselves you can order someone else to do so doesn t use violence to protect their interests Politics is about sharing power and in uence There is no place in the world that sense of proportion Three decisive qualities for a Politician passion sense of responsibility and Slide three passion deep commitment to the matter at hand not just sterile excitement This is only possible when the politician is animated by a sense of responsibility Sense of proportion the distance from people and things that enables action guided by inner calm and composure Ethics of conviction vs ethics of responsibility 2 Tuesday April 8 2014 Ethics of Conviction A Christian does what is right and leaves the outcome to God In other words do the right thing the rest is out of your hands not just a christian ideal A noble and potentially morally consistent position but impossible to follow in the political arena you cannot excise hypocrisy from politics in order to win in politics you have to play the game Tragedy of Power when you exercise power you are never going to get it right violence literally or guratively even with the best of intentions there is no way of getting away from the Ethics of Conviction vs Ethics of Responsibility EOC a general attitude of people who have a rock hard conviction for which they will not waver Waver thinks the world needs people like this who will not waver from their convictions This particular moral logic once you take it and stick it in the arena of politics it doesn t work you cannot live by ethics of conviction sets a moral example for the world Slide Four Ethics of Conviction has exemplary moral value but is practically impossible in politics Ethics of Responsibility you must answer for the foreseeable consequences of your action No ethics in the world can dodge the fact that in numerous instances the attainment of good ends is bound to the fact that one must be willing to pay the price of using morally dubious means to at least dangerous ones and facing the possibility or even the probability of evil rami cations This is the tragic reality of all politics and of all legal and criminal justice systems side step it This is how the game is played you cannot stand on the political eld and keep your hands clean you cannot Slide