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What can I hope for (from politics)? 1139
determinate and determinated character, so far as it possesses any,
derives from the past.”!?8
This, however, is no longer an explicitly conservative thought.
Maclntyre’s formula was born of the hermeneutic rethinking of the
approach to tradition. It could serve as the common denominator for
communitarian endeavours, among which, it seems, we must seek the
place of the philosophy of ecological politics. For its mission is similar
to that of those who, in the final days of Antiquity, “set themselves to
achieve ... - often not recognizing fully what they were doing — was the
construction of new forms of community within which thee moral life
could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the
coming ages of barbarism and darkness.” According to MacIntyre, “what
matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community
within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained
through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the
tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark
ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. ‘This time however
the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already
been governing us for quite some time.“!””
6. Fleeing the camp of conquerors
If, finally, I were asked as to what original new concept this work can
contribute towards the founding of the philosophy of ecological politics,
I would briefly reply as follows.
We have recognised that interpersonal relationships are ruled by
either compulsion or mutual understanding and goodwill which urge
us to accept the truth of others. The hope that we can escape from the
rule of compulsion while increasing the use of violence against nature
has ended in utter failure. The power which humanity has won over
the forces of nature has increased the individual’s vulnerability to
social conditions to the extreme. Understanding cannot defeat
compulsion. If we nevertheless wish it to become prevalent in human
relations, then compulsion must not be eliminated — which is sadly
impossible, as it is inherent to institutionalisation —, but rather
balanced and neutralised. Recognising this is unavoidable for those
28 Alasdair MacIntyre: After Virtue p.223. Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame,
Indiana 1981, 2007.
2 Ibid. p.263.