More Dervish Politics

Human flourishing is the paramount concern of Dervish politics; but human flourishing emerges from a dialectic between liberty and social welfare.

The two elements of this dialectic are often incommensurable, and so practical politics is inevitably a process whereby one must make hard, if not tragic, choices.

Moreover, each element of this dialectic is subject to further dialectical struggle: rival freedoms as well as rival goods (and not-so-goods) are always in contention.

There is a certain existentialist bent to Dervish politics: we don't just lead lives, we wager them.

John Gray's argument that we should abandon the attempt to create an ideal regime and "adopt instead a conception in which the pursuit of modus vivendi among incommensurable and conflicting values is central" wins the day, for it alone is suited to life in this Tavern of Ruin. [See Gray, Two Faces, 70].



It is therefore tempting to see Dervish politics as a deviation from the Prophetic tradition's commitment to establishing God's Kingdom on earth, but that is not quite accurate. The "Kingdom of God" or of "Heaven" persists in Dervish political thought as a trope: for if we abandon utopian ideals, we lose the measuring stick against which we can attempt to chart our progress towards both individual and civic improvement. Without such ideals, politics quickly descends into unprincipled compromise and a cynical game of power.



The Prophetic Tradition urges us on towards the cultivation of our "best selves" (Bildung). It is our Don Quixote. The Dervish, however, recognizes in herself the humble squire. She rides with the Don, but hangs on to her earthbound sanity.