Dear Mr Cummings. Some years ago I read your 'Some Thoughts on Education and Political Priorities'. I thought it was one of the quite most brilliant things I had ever read. Since then I have followed much of your writing and continue to marvel at not only the range of your reading and insight, but also the way you are able to synthesise it into a plan of action (or outline of action). In other words, I like to think I get it. (Indeed, i did but wonder if i was one of those mavericks you were seeking out when you were at Number 10). But I do wonder whether or not your personalisation of issues - as per the above post - is not being count-productive not only to you as an individual, but also in terms of preventing your ideas from getting traction. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Do what you have to do, but perhaps it is better if you are not seen to be doing it.
Feb 2, 2022·edited Feb 2, 2022Liked by Dominic Cummings
I recommend CS Lewis's brilliant essay on "The Inner Ring", which takes as its starting-point the Tolstoy passage about the "hidden code". Lewis develops his insights about how power is deployed in institutions in his sci-fi novel "That Hideous Strength". Something Lewis is particularly good at identifying is the way that devotion to the "hidden code" drives out, not just competence, but friendship.
Hi Dom -- great post; glad to see some appreciation of Russian lit. "Occasionally there is someone in politics who is also a brilliant artist" made me think of Disraeli. Have you read any of his stuff -- and if so, what are your thoughts
Great! Would love to hear your thoughts on Dostoyevsky too... (though he doesn't do politics quite so explicitly so maybe not your thing). They wrote so much great stuff between them that I think it would be possible not to read any other fiction ever and still not be bored.
"It’s amazing that the Tsarist regime allowed War and Peace to be published. Does anybody know if there were discussions about banning it? " - He did not have problems to publish its pieces in a respectable journal and then pay for and publish 5000 copies of the book. In the 1860s the attention of the censors in Russia was directed to less neutral/more radical journals such as Sovremennik and novels such as What to do? by Chernyshevsky.
Joking aside, I think I like posts like these more than the quotidian political ones. It's like the Jeremy Clarkson meme where he pats the car: "This is brilliant - but I *like* this." While I find the political posts interesting, I never quite know what to ask.
The book posts feel more universal. Everyone is walking the same road from birth to death. The classics are a kind of shared stop along the way, like an extremely slow paced and personal internet message board avant la lettre ("Did you feel this?" "Yes! I did -" "No, that's not it at all -"). I recognise the moments and the situations you talk about.
That shock of recognition is not very common. I'm always on the look out for it, or clues to where it can be found. I have felt it in Thucydides, in the Eyrbyggja saga, in Beowulf, in Pushkin, in Shakespeare. And (although this involves saying something a bit 'déclassé' by the norms of English intellectual culture) I have found it in films and in video games too.
I'm going to want to come back to this post once I have read a bit more Tolstoy. He was friends (sort of) with Ilya Repin, and Repin was an incredible painter, so it feels a bit remiss not to have read anything by him.
One final thing - do you think the fellow who bowed to you elaborately was taking the piss? Or was he inviting you to play?
Fascinating stuff. Admittedly I've never read it - only watched the BBC adaptation, which I adored as a Tolstoy novice. I was cross-referencing the names you mentioned with the characters from that. Did you rate that as a faithful adaptation, out if interest?
I have some travelling to do, so I'll certainly be adding W&P to the reading list for that.
In an absolute monarchy the favour of the Monarch is the obvious favour to seek. In modern Britain who/what is the source of these favours? From whom does Tony Blair seek favour from , for example ?
Dominic, I've only recently started to read your pieces here, and I must apologise for having misjudged you, fwiw. I had simply thought you were a brilliant technocrat's technocrat, focussed entirely on excellence but with little evidence of a moral compass. Sorry, but I'm prone to making snap judgements on little evidence in a world where I feel compelled to spend much of my time reading myself into a vast universe of potentially valid, but also possibly 'bad' resources - up to the point of lunacy in some cases.
I see now that you are not at all untouched by morality, even though you evidently prefer to use its weasel subsidiary, 'ethics', in your usual discourse. You have a broader claim to leadership than I had thought. Thank you for this piece - Tolstoy it is, then..
I am very new to trying to understand history in a deeper way to help me gain perspective in 2022 now that Plagues and Wars seem like a repeating pattern rather than the stuff of exam revision. There is zero false modesty here, I am from a genuinely challenging background that led to my life from the age of 14 or so being driven by chasing financial security then binging on all the excesses that numb the gaps between being stretched to the very limit. I am genuinely none the wiser yet as to whether a successful political leadership, in real meaningful terms, is about evolving the most constructive story for a nation to aim to make true, or simply coming up with the story most voters would go along with, whether it is likely to take us forward in meaningful terms. There is something about Orwell’s messaging, or at least as far as I perceive it at roughly O Level standard, that human nature will ultimately deliver all the story designs to outcomes that prove we are a flawed species in conclusion, no matter whether the intentions were idealistic or pragmatic at the start? It still very much seems like our nation likes Boris if he tells lies that suit us but less so if he tells lies that do not? I am early with Tolstoy having started with the Redemption one but so far in the translation reads more like Wodehouse indulging a tease about posh folks, or is that really the only therapy any of us really get ie the only way to avoid spontaneous combustion is to take the piss out of the toffs? X
Hi Dominic, I think you should read “The responsibility of intellectuals” by Chomsky...no provocation intended. Another one that may be interesting is “The beginning of the end” by Tolstoy
Dear Mr Cummings. Some years ago I read your 'Some Thoughts on Education and Political Priorities'. I thought it was one of the quite most brilliant things I had ever read. Since then I have followed much of your writing and continue to marvel at not only the range of your reading and insight, but also the way you are able to synthesise it into a plan of action (or outline of action). In other words, I like to think I get it. (Indeed, i did but wonder if i was one of those mavericks you were seeking out when you were at Number 10). But I do wonder whether or not your personalisation of issues - as per the above post - is not being count-productive not only to you as an individual, but also in terms of preventing your ideas from getting traction. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Do what you have to do, but perhaps it is better if you are not seen to be doing it.
I recommend CS Lewis's brilliant essay on "The Inner Ring", which takes as its starting-point the Tolstoy passage about the "hidden code". Lewis develops his insights about how power is deployed in institutions in his sci-fi novel "That Hideous Strength". Something Lewis is particularly good at identifying is the way that devotion to the "hidden code" drives out, not just competence, but friendship.
Message received loud and clear.
I think I recognised a lot of that behaviour in PMQ today. Once you see Boris’ and all those who play along with his deception, you can’t un see it.
Hi Dom -- great post; glad to see some appreciation of Russian lit. "Occasionally there is someone in politics who is also a brilliant artist" made me think of Disraeli. Have you read any of his stuff -- and if so, what are your thoughts
I am a person who just dismisses reading fiction.
Why am I wrong?
Wonderful. Thank you.
Great! Would love to hear your thoughts on Dostoyevsky too... (though he doesn't do politics quite so explicitly so maybe not your thing). They wrote so much great stuff between them that I think it would be possible not to read any other fiction ever and still not be bored.
"It’s amazing that the Tsarist regime allowed War and Peace to be published. Does anybody know if there were discussions about banning it? " - He did not have problems to publish its pieces in a respectable journal and then pay for and publish 5000 copies of the book. In the 1860s the attention of the censors in Russia was directed to less neutral/more radical journals such as Sovremennik and novels such as What to do? by Chernyshevsky.
What a wonderful intro. Resurrection is amazing too. A 'whole of life' writer is Tolstoy.
Thank you Dominic you have inspired me to re read Tolstoy .You write so eloquently too.I really enjoyed this posting 👏🏻👍🏻
Fine, I guess I have to read Tolstoy now.
Joking aside, I think I like posts like these more than the quotidian political ones. It's like the Jeremy Clarkson meme where he pats the car: "This is brilliant - but I *like* this." While I find the political posts interesting, I never quite know what to ask.
The book posts feel more universal. Everyone is walking the same road from birth to death. The classics are a kind of shared stop along the way, like an extremely slow paced and personal internet message board avant la lettre ("Did you feel this?" "Yes! I did -" "No, that's not it at all -"). I recognise the moments and the situations you talk about.
That shock of recognition is not very common. I'm always on the look out for it, or clues to where it can be found. I have felt it in Thucydides, in the Eyrbyggja saga, in Beowulf, in Pushkin, in Shakespeare. And (although this involves saying something a bit 'déclassé' by the norms of English intellectual culture) I have found it in films and in video games too.
I'm going to want to come back to this post once I have read a bit more Tolstoy. He was friends (sort of) with Ilya Repin, and Repin was an incredible painter, so it feels a bit remiss not to have read anything by him.
One final thing - do you think the fellow who bowed to you elaborately was taking the piss? Or was he inviting you to play?
Fascinating stuff. Admittedly I've never read it - only watched the BBC adaptation, which I adored as a Tolstoy novice. I was cross-referencing the names you mentioned with the characters from that. Did you rate that as a faithful adaptation, out if interest?
I have some travelling to do, so I'll certainly be adding W&P to the reading list for that.
In an absolute monarchy the favour of the Monarch is the obvious favour to seek. In modern Britain who/what is the source of these favours? From whom does Tony Blair seek favour from , for example ?
Dominic, I've only recently started to read your pieces here, and I must apologise for having misjudged you, fwiw. I had simply thought you were a brilliant technocrat's technocrat, focussed entirely on excellence but with little evidence of a moral compass. Sorry, but I'm prone to making snap judgements on little evidence in a world where I feel compelled to spend much of my time reading myself into a vast universe of potentially valid, but also possibly 'bad' resources - up to the point of lunacy in some cases.
I see now that you are not at all untouched by morality, even though you evidently prefer to use its weasel subsidiary, 'ethics', in your usual discourse. You have a broader claim to leadership than I had thought. Thank you for this piece - Tolstoy it is, then..
I am very new to trying to understand history in a deeper way to help me gain perspective in 2022 now that Plagues and Wars seem like a repeating pattern rather than the stuff of exam revision. There is zero false modesty here, I am from a genuinely challenging background that led to my life from the age of 14 or so being driven by chasing financial security then binging on all the excesses that numb the gaps between being stretched to the very limit. I am genuinely none the wiser yet as to whether a successful political leadership, in real meaningful terms, is about evolving the most constructive story for a nation to aim to make true, or simply coming up with the story most voters would go along with, whether it is likely to take us forward in meaningful terms. There is something about Orwell’s messaging, or at least as far as I perceive it at roughly O Level standard, that human nature will ultimately deliver all the story designs to outcomes that prove we are a flawed species in conclusion, no matter whether the intentions were idealistic or pragmatic at the start? It still very much seems like our nation likes Boris if he tells lies that suit us but less so if he tells lies that do not? I am early with Tolstoy having started with the Redemption one but so far in the translation reads more like Wodehouse indulging a tease about posh folks, or is that really the only therapy any of us really get ie the only way to avoid spontaneous combustion is to take the piss out of the toffs? X
Hi Dominic, I think you should read “The responsibility of intellectuals” by Chomsky...no provocation intended. Another one that may be interesting is “The beginning of the end” by Tolstoy