For John Milton, the devil was a bad-boy hero standing up to God. To turn this into Osbornomics, for 'God' read 'state'
George Osborne is set to warn: 'We've got to make more cuts. That's why 2014 is the year of hard truths.'
by Giles Fraser
What is the connection between George Osborne's latest restatement of the ideology of the smaller state and the Church of England's recent decision to get rid of the devil from the baptism service? OK, I admit it: my mind works in peculiar ways. But just bear with me.
Arguably, the modern history of the devil begins with Milton. Fierce republican that he was, Milton is commonly read as being sympathetic to the devil's revolt against the arbitrary and total power that was God. Milton's devil is the bad-boy hero of so much subsequent literature and popular culture because he prefers self-determination to anything that smacks of acquiescence to an external force. Here is his devil is full flow:
"[…] Let us not then persue […] our state
Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek
Our own good from ourselves, and from our own
Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,
Free, and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp." (Paradise Lost II, 249-57)
So let me segue from John Milton to Milton Friedman. They share more than a name. For the godfather of smaller state economics did much to paint the state as some hostile power, imposing its authority on freedom-loving prosperity-seeking individuals. For Milton the economist, this false divine was communism. And this philosophy remains the mantra of modern Tories everywhere, not least George Osborne.
'Milton’s devil prefers self-determination to anything that smacks of acquiescence to an external force.' Photograph: PenguinTonight in Birmingham, Osborne will keep up his pressure on the state by arguing that more cuts are necessary. He will accompany it with more blah about growth and debt and "hard truths" – but at base, its pure ideology. Freedom-loving individuals need the big bad overly powerful state to butt out of their lives just as Milton's devil wanted God to butt out of his life. For Osborne, this means "there is more to reform in our benefits system", as David Cameron told Andrew Marr yesterday. Housing benefits are probably going to be the specific target.
The problem is simple. As Osborne keeps on cutting benefits, the poor and vulnerable are increasingly exposed to the chill winds of economic destitution. There are many for whom the state is all that stands between them and a freezing house and a life of misery. But to Osborne, the devil speaks only in beguiling words of freedom and prosperity for the rest of us. And this is the devil we need exorcising from our political liturgy. Like God, the state may be a lot duller than the devilish alternative – and certainly a lot duller that the glamorous freedoms depicted by the two Miltons. But speak to the poor and they will tell you what being of the devil's party is really all about.
Guardian
