Rational Philosophy

It’s interesting watching Giuliani run for president. While living in New York for the past fifteen years I’ve had some awareness of Giuliani and his perspectives. I feel as though I know him to some extent. His appearance before the National Rifle Association (the NRA) last week was fascinating. In an attempt to try to secure the NRA’s endorsment he felt obliged to defend his mayoral record of criticism of the NRA and his steadfast lobbying over that period for stricter gun control.

We all change our minds. It is important and inevitable for rational thinkers to revise and amend their thinking in the light of deeper or broader understanding. Often, politicians seem not to be permitted this right. And often politicians don’t try to exercise it, choosing instead to spin their ‘beliefs’ to best negotiate the current political waters.

Here is what Giuliani said to the NRA:

“At the time, what I was doing during the time that I was mayor was taking advantage of every law and every interpretation of every law that I could think of to reduce crime.”

On the face of it, there seems no reason to question that this is correct. It seems completely in accord with Giuliani’s recor. It also seems to concord with his declared intention at the time — to reduce crime and make New York a safer place.

But what is Giuliani’s intention now? And how do we interpret, philosophically, his shift in stance on gun control?

I’m not trying to think this through in order to lambast Giuliani. I know I, too, change my mind and wonder whether I’m doing so to suit my own ends. What seems to be important is to ask the question.

Giuliani’s priorities have changed. He is no longer the mayor of New York City. Therefore he has a new perspective. His goal in speaking to the NRA to further his political ambitions. But the critical question seems to be this: Did he intend to further his political ambitions by forging an allegiance with a powerful conservative group, or did he intend to further his political ambitions by speaking his mind and presenting his revised perspective on the importance and scope of gun control?

It is easy to jump to the first conclusion. I did when I first heard about Giuliani’s address. And then when watching clips of Giuliani’s address he seems sincere and thoughtful. Parsing the language of his U-turn we find that he sounds reasonable. He’s changed his mind, we think.

But if we parse his statements in a different way, if we look for Giuliani’s approach to arriving at rational convictions, statements and acts, we can draw a disturbing conclusion. What Giuliani declares is that he was using every means possible to make New York a safer place. He exorts this approach in his speech to the NRA saying that he used the same strategy in every aspect of his mayorship. Giuliani sees nothing wrong in this. He was trained to do this. He was, by all accounts, a very successful prosecutor of the cases that he prosecuted (although he was criticized for dropping the ones he didn’t feel confident about).

Giuliani’s philosophy, it seems, and by his own declaration, is one of exigency. I do what I do in order to achieve the result I want to achieve. Since the result is desirable, my actions are justified.

This philosophy is excellent so long as one has goals that are noble and altruistic. But a person who holds this philosophy is unlikely to consistently hold noble and altruistic goals because they are accustomed to setting goals based on need or desire.

An anecdote that will be familiar to all of those who lived through Giuliani’s mayorship. Giuliani had a dislike of ferrets. He pursued this dislike with all of the tenacity that he pursued everything else. He banned the keeping of ferrets as pets. Can a man who will issue laws against small mammals in the midst of a crackdown on crime in one of the world’s biggest cities really be expected to keep a perspective on the demand for exigency?