Een fantastisch fragment uit de politieke HBO-serie The West wing, over filosofische kennis versus het opzeggen van one-liners, en over het nut van die kennis
Josh (assistent van de Chief of Staff) geeft zijn assistente Donna de opdracht om naar één van de lezingen te gaan van een zelf-hulpgoeroe (Tomba) die consulteerde voor de opponent van de president in de volgende verkiezingen. Om wat bezwarend informatie te verzamelen over die opponent. De opponent is een radicale anti-intellectueel (een G.W. Bush-type). We zien dat die goeroe in zijn fliterdunne boeken steelt van de grote filosofen; maar op zo’n manier dat elke diepe waarheid verwordt tot een lege slogan. Hier volgt het transcript van de scène:
DONNA
I’m talking about this. So the guy’s consulted for Ritchie. He’s a buffoon, but he’s harmless.
Why should it be part of the campaign?
JOSH
Because it’s not harmless in an American President.
DONNA
Nothing he said was wrong or objectionable. …
JOSH
Open this book to any page.
Josh hands the book to Donna who opens the book and hands it back to Josh.
JOSH
“It’s good to be trapped in a corner. That’s when you act.”
DONNA
That happens to be true.
JOSH
It is. In my case, it’s the only time that I do.
DONNA
So?
JOSH
It’s Immanuel Kant! “Duty! Sublime and mighty name, that embraces nothing charming or insinuating
but requires submission.” Every year a million freshman philosophy students read that sentence.
DONNA
And change their major?
JOSH
You’ve just got a mouth full of wiseass today, don’t you?
…
DONNA
So he cripped Kant. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?
JOSH
It comes from a 193-page book called “A Critique of Practical Reason.” It’s about metaphysics and
epistemology. Tomba’s impressively boiled it down to two-thirds of one page. Give me another one.
DONNA
“Look outside the cave.”
JOSH
Right. That’s from an old paperback called “The Republic” by Plato. Lucky Tomba’s been able to
fit on fortune cookie so it suits the attention span of the Republican nominee. Here he quotes
Robert Frost. “Good fences make good neighbors.” Did he talk about that?
DONNA
Yeah.
JOSH
What did he say?
DONNA
Basically, that if you stay within your personal space, you’ll end up getting along with everyone.
JOSH
You had to study modern poetry.
DONNA
Yes.
JOSH
Is that what Frost meant?
DONNA
No, he meant that boundries are what alienate us from each other.
JOSH
Why did he say “Good fences make good neighbors?”
DONNA
He was being ironic, but I still don’t see…
JOSH
What does this remind you of? “I believe in hope, not fear.” “I’m a leader, not a politician.”
“It’s time for an American leader.” “America’s earned a change.” “I before ‘E’ except after ‘C’!”
It’s the fortune-cookie candidacy! These are important thinkers, and understanding them can be
very useful and it’s not ever going to happen at a four-hour seminar. When the President’s got
an embassy surrounded in Haiti, or a keyhole photograph of a heavy water reactor, or any of the
fifty life-and-death matters that walk across his desk every day, I don’t know if he’s thinking
about Immanuel Kant or not. I doubt it, but if he does, I am comforted at least in my certainty
that he is doing his best to reach for all of it and not just the McNuggets. Is it possible we
would be willing to require any less of the person sitting in that chair? The low road? I don’t
think it is.
Categorie: filosofie, televise, The West Wing
