[see also bibliography, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7]How can I find this courage, the determination necessary to accept this responsibility for political actions - conceived under conditions of great uncertainty - which will inevitably produce unforeseen results which may be harmful and will regardless earn me the enmity of others? The immense responsibility potentially lurking in all political action, characterized as it is by a boundlessness that can transform a single word into a revolution, is experienced most viscerally by the military commander in battle:
It is the impact of the ebbing of moral and physical strength, of the heart-rending spectacle of the dead and wounded, that the commander has to withstand - first in himself, and then in all those who directly or indirectly, have entrusted him with their thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears. As each man's strength gives out, as it no longer responds to his will, the inertia of the whole gradually comes to rest on the commander's will alone. The ardor of his spirit must rekindle the flame of purpose in all others; his inward fire must revive their hope... Such are the burdens in battle that the commander's courage and strength of will must overcome if he hopes to achieve outstanding success (Clausewitz 105).
To find the determination necessary to accept repsonsibility for my political action despite the immense doubts I am faced with upon confronting the political terrain, I must possess what Clausewitz calls "strength of character," or what Weber simply calls "passion." Because of the uncertainty of political action,
the serving of a cause must not be absent if action is to have inner strength. Exactly what the cause, in the service of which the politician strives for power and uses power, looks like is a matter of faith. The politician may serve national, humanitarian, social, ethical, cultural, worldly, or religious ends. The politiican may be sustained by a strong belief in 'progress' - no matter in which sense - or he may coolly reject this kind of belief. He may claim to stand in the service of an 'idea' or, rejecting this in principle, he may want to serve external ends of everyday life. However, some kind of faith must always exist (Weber).
Clausewitz also insists upon "a strong faith" in my convictions and in the truth of my principles to provide a guide to my action in circumstances characterized by such doubt. Everywhere in the political, "fresh opinions never cease to batter at one's convictions. No degree of calm can provide enough protection: new impressions are too powerful, too vivid, and always assault the emotions as well as the intellect" (Clausewitz 108), and a strong or passionate faith in my beliefs is required if these transient impressions and doubts are not to overwhelm my political pursuit, which must always encounter such uncertainty in its course. This is not blind, egotistical obstinancy, which is merely "reluctance to admit that one is wrong" (Clausewitz 108), but a conscious awareness that I must act despite the challenges of the situation in which I find myself and an acceptance of responsibility for my actions nonetheless. While I am ready to change or even abandon my intention if I am moved to do so by a clear recognition of necessity, I will not be moved by the countless transient doubts that assail me, recognizing that these are the inevitable consequence of my acting into the political terrain. "By giving precedence, in case of doubt, to our earlier convictions, by holding to them stubbornly, our actions acquire that quality of steadfastness and consistency which is termed strength of character" (108), and this passionate faith, this strength of character is the ground on which my determination, my willingness to accept responsibility and act, is based. Without this strength I am hopelessly adrift in the shifting ground of the politivcal, pushed and pulled in countelss directions by the expressions of others, pummuled in a torrent of new events and opinions, including those of enemies who express themselves more or less explicitly against me. It is because of this strength of character that "the painter or the politician moulds others much more often than he follows them" (Merleau-Ponty 74); I am able to hold fast to my values as I pursue them in a milieu that inevitably draws me away from them, and as a consequence I draw others towards my values more strongly as well.
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