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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.
