General Will

Not everything is a metaphor. Not every economic analogy works. For example, Trump's being a "disruptor" may not be enough. Despite the distance and self-absorption of the American government, sometimes it has to do something positive.


                                     General Will

The first problem with Rousseau’s concept of the social contract is that the “general will” he posits has, like God, no voice to make itself heard directly. For its expression and interpretation, it must rely on particular, wise individuals to lend it theirs. (Blom)

So it is that a people have a music they internally hum. As is so often the case, this music translates poorly. Robespierre's concert was very different from Himmler's, Lenin's different from Marx's. Sometimes the music, like Rousseau's, has borders, sometimes, like Himmler's, it demands borders be crossed. Sometimes, like Lenin's, the music unifies an imagined state, sometimes, like Marx, the world.

Despite these complexities, there are some general truths here. General Will rarely emphasizes the individual. Such an emphasis requires a creed, a belief, and not inchoate patterns and directions. And in the United States, the General Will, the commonly shared belief, is a covenant, a philosophy. It is not an emotion. The belief in the rights of the individual predates, in every citizen, anything the State can argue is General Will.