Modern Age - Winter 2018 - 80

Modern Age

*

Winter 2018

The primacy of command
If we escape for a moment the spell of modern freedom; if we
close our ears for a moment to the ceaselessly whispered suggestion to let people do as they will, to let things be; if we strive to
be attentive to practical life as we can observe it in ourselves and
outside ourselves; then we will perceive that all action is either
commanding or commanded, at least implicitly or by tendency.
This, moreover, is why human life, whether public, social, or private, is always essentially in tension. This is neither a defect that
we should correct nor a disease that we should heal.
There is no need to attribute this tension to some particular
feature of human nature: for example, as Hobbes does, to the
desire ever to acquire power after power. Almost everything is
contained in the fact of having to act, in the fact of the agendum. The urgency of what is to be done and the desire to do well
easily cause us to mistake the command contained in the action
itself; this command, which is at least implicit, of course does not
escape those who take part in the action with us and who thus
see a command, our command, where we see only the thing to be
done. Thus the acting person, even the least eager to command,
necessarily puts pressure (as we say today) on the person acting
with him. It may be indeed that this tension is now more intense
and more trying than it has ever been, insofar as we would like to
think that we must live without either command or obedience.
As I just noted, command has less to do with the acting person's
desire for power than with action itself; or let us say at least that the
person assumes the commanding stance only because it is internal
to action itself. Authentic or complete action is naturally commanding. Command is action itself, its core and essence. As to one who
neither commands nor obeys-who can say what he really does?
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Modern Age - Winter 2018

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