2009 Reith Lectures: Prof Michael Sandel Part 2

June 28th, 2009
radio

The second lecture is more interesting than the first. It starts off from the idea that the personal is political. Sandel believes that to separate politics from the personal by ignoring the moral and religious opinions of the public is mistaken

…for two reasons: first, it’s not always possible to decide questions of justice and rights without resolving substantive moral questions…Arguments about justice and rights are unavoidably arguments about the moral meaning of the goods at stake. The second reason is that even where it may be possible, it may not be desirable.

But I don’t know if that is quite as practical. Ideally, all opinions (including moral and religious, etc) of all the people in a democracy must be considered carefully before deciding policy. In SG, what I’ve always found irritating is that instead of active debate to include all opinions in terms of policy making, politicians immediately create policies that lean towards the morality of the ‘conservative public’. Yes, can’t fault the party for not listening to the ‘conservative public’ but I’m not sure this ‘conservative public’ exists at all. I’m thinking that it’s the get-out-of-awkward-debate-card that gets waved about when there are slightly troublesome questions arise.

(Catch them all here.)

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