Who Was Joseph de Maistre (And Why He Matters) Part II

“Maistre is a fascinating thinker not so much due to the quality of his arguments themselves but instead what they represent and anticipate.”

Introduction

My earlier article on Joseph de Maistre concluded with the observation that he conflates a nation not with the actual people who comprise it, but rather with figures of authority who are responsible for upholding stability and tradition. A mutually constitutive relationship is established where political authority constitutes the identity of the people who, in turn, empower their leaders through obedience and reverence. For Maistre, this relationship lies at the basis of all political systems and cannot be explicated by reason. Indeed, it is a fundamentally irrational relationship predicated on the human reverence for authoritative order and a fear of violent reprisal or chaos if the dynamic breaks down under the pressures of criticism.

Like all reactionaries pining for an idealized past that never was, Maistre’s thinking was very much a product of the epoch he sought to overcome.

From a purely philosophical standpoint Maistre’s position is highly implausible. Claiming that the basis of political legitimacy is actually an irrational reverence for authority and a fear of violence is unlikely to convince anyone who believes that the first duty of the state is in some manner to look after the welfare of its people. Maistre had little interest in such conceits, readily condemning 4 million Frenchmen to violent death for the crime of executing Louis XVI. But Maistre is a fascinating thinker not so much due to the quality of his arguments themselves but instead what they represent and anticipate. Like all reactionaries pining for an idealized past that never was, Maistre’s thinking was very much a product of the epoch he sought to overcome.

The Destabilization of the World

“All grandeur, all power, all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappear”