{History and Politics}[22nd June 1970]

[Redbook1:162-163][19700622:2330]{History and Politics}[22nd June 1970]

11.30pm

            The major problems of politics involved causes which one knows to exist and results of those causes in the future which one desires to discover.  Some minor problems involve results which one wants, and causes which one must find for them and make effective.

            History has many results but few certain causes, save that the results of the cause before are the causes of some results to come.

            It is for this reason that history is helpful, not in text-book politics -- if there is such a thing -- but to the individual politician who is answerable, on the whole, for the results of his actions rather than the reasons for his decisions.  He is less likely to say  ‘because in history, this, so now, that’ than to let the knowledge of history affect his whole decision-making process which in turn affects his final decision -- on an irrational and instinctive rather than the rational and logical level beloved of critics, historians and some scientists.  But, of course, there are politicians and politicians.

[PostedBlogger15032013]