Unthinking dogmatism

Wednesday, 30th January 2008

James MacMillan explains why he hates the assumption that he is a liberal left-winger

Before the performance of one of my orchestral works in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, I gave a short introductory talk and quoted the philosopher Roger Scruton. The Guardian review denounced this as ‘perilous’. What or who was perilous? Were Scruton’s ideas perilous? Was my public association with him perilous? And, if so, for whom? For me? Was this a threat?

In the Daily Telegraph last year Dominic Cavendish asked, ‘Why do so few of today’s plays challenge the left–liberal consensus? Is there a tacit complicity between many of today’s writers and the liberal establishment? Is the “liberal consensus” and the fear of appearing right-wing hobbling the urge to conduct tough, awkward debates?’ The response from Lisa Goldman, artistic director of the Soho theatre, was telling, and depressing in its simplistic caricature of what ‘right-wing’ means. She asked, ‘What would a right-wing play have to offer? Anti-democracy, misogyny, bigotry, nostalgia of all kinds? Let’s get back to a white Britain? That the slave trade had a civilising influence? That women should stay in the home?’ For her, and many like her, anything that is not left-wing is intrinsically and irredeemably evil. There seems no room in her intellectual and aesthetic view to observe a huge and diverse world of moderate and civilised thinkers who have rejected the extreme narrowness of the modern Left.

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Alastair Simmons

February 1st, 2008 11:56am Report this comment

Three cheers for James MacMillan's attack on the liberal left whose intolerant dogma has infected like a virus every level of decision making in our society - in particular their "their fundamentalist hatred of Christianity". I encountered it as a former Principal Teacher of Religious Education. I still encounter it today as a Pastor of an "evangelical" church in MacMillan's home county of Ayrshire - which gave us Robert Burn's memorable poem "The Cotter's Saturday Night" depicting a Bible loving Scotland which is now savaged and sneered at by today's PC police. Burn's closing comments seem very apposite - "From scenes like these, old Scotia's [Scotland] grandeur springs That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 'An honest man's the noblest work of God';

Rictus, USA

February 2nd, 2008 5:39pm Report this comment

I am still on the left, but I agree wholeheartedly with this article. The sad irony is that much of this Pomo, identity politics, multicult "left" actually is a trendy elitist cover for the very market values they pretend to decry. How, for example, could modern advertizing survive without Debord and Situationism? The list could go on . . .

David Preiser

February 2nd, 2008 8:22pm Report this comment

Brilliant, and well done. These things must be said. Thank you.

alan stoddart

February 21st, 2008 6:07pm Report this comment

My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Rick Walsh

April 3rd, 2008 11:11am Report this comment

That a bloke who believes Jesus rose from the dead can accuse, without irony,'progressive elites' of lacking 'intellectual rigour' just takes the breath away. You couldn't make it up.

Arthur Pendragon

July 2nd, 2008 6:57am Report this comment

I would rather an article that articulates what MacMillan does believe. I am tired of a media that is simply dominated by polemic, right or left, and seemingly cannot bear witness to what we might be for!

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