Amoral politics
Sir, Mr Folkes (November 8) correctlY points out that 'a doctrine of individual conduct' and 'a doctrine about Government policies' are two quite distinctlY separate categories of human affairs — but with the implication that Government policies are, or should be, exempt from those value judgments employed in our everyday lives. It is just such amoral thinking (or the desire for a morally `neutral' politics) that was Part of my criticism. Of course the law ef economics work independently of moral belief, but the direction of economic activity is guided by all governments on criteria to some extent based on individual values. Are not the priorities of policy, in formulated doctrine, an elaboration of personal values? And is this not desirable — nay, unavoidable — or is Mr Folkes propagating the myth of public policy totally devoid of ethical evaluation?
Is it not strange, that for all their rhetoric about the evil of the State extending its field of activity under, 'socialism', the so-called 'libertarians of the Right are the fiercest offenders of the most repressive and illiberal regimes outside the Communist countries? I venture to suggest to the possibility that the authoritarianism characteristic of Right-wing 'libertarianism', in all but a purely economic aspect of its thinking, would in practice result in a totalitarianism far more extensive and severe than that threatened by 'socialism'.
B. P. Borehom 4 Gordon Court, High Street, Hampton Hill, Middlesex
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