The Tory tradition
Sir: I read with great interest John Grigg's sober assessment of Paul Johnson's individualism and anti-corpd'ratism (17 September). John Grigg undoubtedly renders great service to the Tory cause when, for instance, he writes: 'Neither his form of individualism nor his form of anti-corporatism is in harmony with the Tory view of history, or of the world.' John Grigg's own view of history is firmly in line with the Tory tradition and practice. It is supported by thinkers and statesmen from Viscount Bolingbroke to our own times. As regards Hobbes's state of nature, with its individualism, there is no historical evidence to show that such a state of nature ever existed. Hobbes himself regarded his story as a myth, appropriate, as he saw, to England ravaged by the Civil War. Moreover, we don't have to go back in history to show the mythical character of Hobbes's state of nature. All we need is to perform a logical abstraction; just remove from human life what society provides and see what would be left. Viscount Bolingbroke saw man as 'a sociable animal, an animal capable of feeling the immediate pleasure and advantage of society'. Simeon Stylites is a freak of nature!
The paradox of politics, Sir, is the reconciliation of liberty and obligation. Or, to put it differently, it is co-operation, which was and must be, the base of every species of success. It is an insane illusion to believe that without co-operation we can obtain success or enjoy all the fruits of material and technological progress. Mr Johnson's individualism, with its attendant anticorporatism, if taken seriously and acted upon, will be a recipe for industrial and social unrest; it will make us captives, just like the ones depicted in Plato's allegory of the Cave.
A. Yasamee 49 Queens Road, London SW19
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