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Overdoing Democracy
Overdoing
Democracy
Why We Must Put Politics in its Place
R O B E RT B. TA L I S SE
1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
I . F R A M I N G T H E T H E SI S
I I . D IAG N O SI S
I I I . P R E S C R I P T IO N
Notes 175
Works Cited 183
Index 193
Acknowledgments
The irony is not lost on me. This book is about the need to attend to
things other than democratic politics, and yet my entire career as a
professional philosopher has been devoted to thinking about de-
mocracy. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that I begin by thanking friends
and family, most of whom are not academics, who have provided
rich outlets for social engagement that are rarely focused on pol-
itics. First among these is my wife, Joanne Billett, who remains a
source of deep insight, sound advice, new ideas, and, most impor-
tantly, attachments to things whose value I otherwise would have
overlooked. My mother, Patricia Talisse, supplies support simply by
means of her enthusiasm for (almost) anything I do. In the course
of writing this book, I’ve been benefitted in a similar way by reg-
ular discussions and visits with long-time non-philosopher friends
with whom I share histories stretching back to the time before
I took up an academic career: Theano Apostolou, Donna Baker,
Michael Calamari, Matt Cotter, Julie Hwang, Dave McCullough,
and Edward Taylor.
Of course, colleagues can also be friends. There is much in this
book that has been improved as a result of my friendship and on-
going philosophical collaboration with Scott Aikin. Scott not
only read most of the manuscript, he also welcomed scores of im-
promptu discussions about the ideas it contains. No doubt several
of these conversations began as a sudden interruption of his own
work, so I am appreciative of his forbearance. In any case, Scott
helped me think through many of the details of the view I present
here. More importantly, he also provided occasions for thinking
philosophically about things other than democratic politics.
Another colleague and friend, Jeffrey Tlumak, provided a similar
viii Acknowledgments
of this kind frequently cite staying home as the best policy, while
also acknowledging, regretfully, that it is not a live option for many.
When one takes due account of the vagaries of family dynamics
and the assortment of other stressors that (thanks to the perpetu-
ally expanding Christmas season) are in play at Thanksgiving, the
uniformity of the advice given in the genre is striking.5 But so is
the messaging. Surely there is something peculiar in the fact that
so many of us should reach for strangers’ advice for dealing with a
once-a-year dinner with family members. This incongruity is punc-
tuated by the fact we are seeking advice from strangers for man-
aging a dinner whose explicit purpose is to bring family together.
Democratic politics is tearing us apart.
This book addresses a problem that lies at the intersection of
democratic theory and democratic practice. More specifically,
it presents a case for changing how we think about democratic
politics by examining a problem with how we presently prac-
tice democracy. The argument thus begins from the premise that
contemporary democracy is, indeed, troubled. The warrant for
this premise strikes me as obvious. Moreover, it also strikes me
that this premise is widely shared among those who talk and write
about contemporary democratic politics. One might go so far as
to say that the only thing on which the gamut of political theorists,
commentators, pundits, and citizens from across the political spec-
trum seem to be agreed is that modern democracy has fallen on
rough times.
According to some, modern democracy is plagued by distinc-
tive difficulties arising from globalization, including global insta-
bility and problems related to economic inequality, nationalism,
racism, immigration, refugees, and poverty. Others see the rise of
the Internet and social media as the core problem. There are those
who claim that the trouble lies in the 24/7 cable news channels,
or untrustworthy journalists; others who take the same view with
regard to officeholders and party leaders. Some contend that our
political dysfunctions arise from the influx of money into politics;
4 Introduction
others cite the fact that the most highly mobilized segments of the
citizenry tend also to be the most politically ignorant. And some
identify the loss of civility among citizens, politicians, pundits, and
journalists as the real problem. These different ways of diagnosing
democracy’s troubles all have their merits, and it is not my aim in
this book to settle any rivalry among them as unitary explanations.
The point is simply that the discussion that follows presupposes
that not all is well with contemporary democracy.
My aim is to identify a dimension of democracy’s trouble that
has been overlooked, perhaps because it is constantly in view. This
has to do with the ubiquity of democratic politics, the saturation
of social life with activities and projects that are overtly organized
around the categories and divisions of current politics—the polit-
ical saturation of social space, as it will be called in what follows.
Political saturation is an unsurprising outcome of popular ways of
conceptualizing the ideal of a democratic society. We tend to think
that, as the project of collective self-government among equals is
both ongoing and highly valuable, in our lives together we must
perpetually enact our role as democratic citizens. Consequently,
our social lives tend to be dominated by explicitly political projects.
And this means, in turn, that our day-to-day social encounters tend
to be structured around our political allegiances. In short, we are
overdoing democracy. And in overdoing democracy, we dissolve
our capacity to do democracy well. Thus the prescriptive upshot of
this book: if we want to improve the condition of democratic poli-
tics, we need to occasionally do something together other than pol-
itics. We have to put politics in its place.
In this way, the democratic ideal must be reconceived to more ex-
plicitly recognize its own constraints. It must incorporate the idea
that democracy is worth doing well because there are other things
worthy of our pursuit that can be pursued best in a well-functioning
democracy, but are nonetheless not themselves enactments of dem-
ocratic politics. To put the point somewhat differently, even if one
contends that democracy is intrinsically good, it is still the case that
Introduction 5
Painful points (Valleix's points) are not present, but there is usually
tenderness over the supraorbital notch during an attack of migraine,
and after the paroxysm there is a general soreness of the scalp and
forehead. Sometimes there remains a tenderness of the parts
surrounding the affected nerve. This is not in the nerve itself, but in
the adjacent tissues. Anstie9 says that in his own case, after
repeated attacks of migraine, the bone had become sensibly
thickened in the neighborhood of the supraorbital notch. There is
sometimes hyperæsthesia of the skin in the affected regions of the
forehead and scalp during an attack. As well as hyperæsthesia,
there may be an abnormal acuteness of the sense of touch. Deep
pressure over the superior and middle ganglia of the sympathetic
causes pain, according to Eulenburg. This observer also states that
the spinal processes of the lower cervical and upper dorsal vertebræ
are painful on pressure.
9 Op. cit., p. 182.
During the attack there are disorders of the circulation. The pulse
may be intermittent or irregular, and the extremities are usually cold.
Disorders of cutaneous sensibility are also often present. A condition
of numbness confined to one lateral half of the body is sometimes
experienced during the early part of the paroxysm. This numbness is
noticed even in one half of the tongue.
The German writers have divided migraine into two types, and the
arrangement may be followed in some instances. The first is called
hemicrania spastica or sympathico-tonica. In this form there is
supposed to be vascular spasm and a diminished supply of blood in
the brain. The symptoms are as follows: When the attack has
reached its height the face is pale and sunken; the eye is hollow and
the pupil dilated; the arteries are tense and feel like a cord. The
external ear and the tip of the nose are cold. Eulenburg10 states that
by actual measurement he has found the temperature in the external
auditory meatus fall 0.4° to 0.6° C. The pain is increased by
stooping, straining, or anything which adds to the blood-supply in the
head. At the end of the attack the face becomes flushed and there is
a sense of heat. The conjunctiva becomes reddened, the eye is
suffused, and the pupil, which had been dilated, contracts. The
sense of warmth becomes general, the pulse is quickened, and the
heart palpitates. The crisis is reached with vomiting and a copious
flow of urine or perhaps a diarrhœic stool. There is sometimes an
abundant flow of saliva. One observer has reported that he has
estimated a flow of two pounds of saliva during an attack.
10 Op. cit.
In all forms, if the patient can be quiet, he usually falls asleep after
the crisis has been reached, and awakes free from pain, but feeling
haggard and prostrated.
The paroxysm lasts for several hours, generally the greater part of
the day. It may last for several days, with variations of severity. The
attacks are at longer or shorter intervals of time, and in women they
often appear at the menstrual period. The attack may be brought on
by over-mental or bodily exertion, imprudence in eating or drinking,
and exposure to cold draughts of air. It will often begin as a
supraorbital neuralgia from exposure to cold, and go on through all
the phenomena of a regular migraine.
We now come to the question of the origin and seat of the pain in
migraine. This question has involved a great deal of thought, and
has been answered in various ways by different writers. E. du Bois-
Raymond thought that the pain was due to tonic spasm of the
muscular coats of the vessels, and that thereby the nerves in the
sheaths of the vessels were pinched, as it were, and so caused pain.
Moellendorff was of the opinion that the pain was due to dilatation of
the vessels, and not to contraction; and this theory might explain the
pain in the angio-paralytic form. There are many cases in which
neither of these views is sufficient, for we have no reason to believe
that a condition of either anæmia or hyperæmia is present.
Romberg believed that the pain was situated in the brain itself, and
Eulenburg holds that the pain must be caused by alterations in the
blood-supply, without regard to their origin, in the vessels of one side
of the head. He thinks that the vessels may contract and dilate with
suddenness, just as is often seen in some neuralgias, and thus
intensely excite the nerves of sensation which accompany the
vessels. The increase of pain upon stooping, straining, or coughing,
and the influence upon it by compression of the carotids, seem to
give force to this view. But are we not here confusing cause with
effect? Are not these variations in the calibre of the vessels due to
the irritation of the sensory and vaso-motor nerves, which are in a
state of pain? No doubt increase in the blood-supply augments the
pain, just as it does in an inflamed part when more blood goes to the
part. Let a finger with felon hang down, or let a gouty foot rest upon
the floor, what an intensity of pain follows!
Anstie brings forward as arguments to support his view the facts that
the attacks of migraine often interchange with neuralgic seizures,
and that a person who has been migraineuse in early life may in later
years lose his hemicranial attacks, and have violent neuralgia in the
ophthalmic division of the fifth nerve.
The true seat of the lesion, if we may so call it, upon which the
exaggeration of pain-sense depends, is probably in the nerve-centre;
that is, in that part of the trigeminal nucleus back to which the fibres
go which are distributed to the painful areas. The pain is no doubt
chiefly intracranial, and in those portions of the cerebral mass and
meninges to which branches of the trigeminal are distributed. All of
the divisions of the trigeminus send branches to the dura mater.
Many nerves are found in the pia mater as plexuses around the
vessels, some of which penetrate into the centre of the brain. Most of
these nerves come from branches of the trigeminus.
Anstie has found the careful use of galvanism to the head and
sympathetic of positive advantage in keeping off attacks, and
Eulenburg has had the same experience.
In the treatment of the attack the patient should be freed from all
sources of external irritation. He should lie down in a darkened room,
and all noises should be excluded. If the attack is of the hyperæmic
variety, the patient's head should not be low, as this must favor
increase of blood to the head. In this form the patient is often more
comfortable sitting up or walking about. Occasionally an impending
attack can be warded off by the administration of caffeine, guarana,
or cannabis indica. Purgatives are of but little value in this form of
headache. The local application of menthol or of the oleate of
aconitia to the brow of the affected side will sometimes prevent an
attack. If a person can lie down quietly when he feels an attack
coming on, one or two doses of fifteen grains each of the bromide of
lithium will enable him to sleep, and wake free from pain. I have
found the lithium bromide far more valuable in migraine than any
other of the bromides. An effervescing preparation known as bromo-
caffeine is often efficacious in aborting a paroxysm or in palliating it
when it has got under way.
Once the attack has begun fully, we can only attempt to mitigate the
pain. Firm pressure on the head generally gives relief, and encircling
the head firmly with a rubber bandage is often of great comfort.
Compression of the carotids gives temporary but decided ease to the
pain. Strong counter-irritation in the shape of a mustard plaster to the
nape of the neck or a stimulating application, like Granville's lotion,
to the vertex, will afford relief. I have found in some cases that
placing a hot-water bag, as hot as could be borne, against the back
of the head alleviates the pain. In other instances cold affords more
relief, and an ice-bag resting upon the forehead is the most
efficacious way of applying cold. Hot bottles to the feet are an
accessory not to be overlooked.
It is for this reason that I prefer to use the bromides, and if a patient
is seen at the beginning of a paroxysm, given a fifteen-grain dose of
bromide of lithium, his feet put in hot mustard-water, and he then
goes to bed, he will almost always cut his attack short, and on
waking from sleep will feel refreshed and able to take food.
VERTIGO.
A few persons insist that something like a distinct aura precedes the
attacks. In other cases the brain symptoms develop gradually, from a
faint sense of dizziness up to a tumultuous feeling of confusion with
sensory illusions. In a few rare cases there is, as in that above
mentioned, an abrupt onset. Something seems to snap in the head,
and the vertigo follows; or, most rare of all, we have a sensory
discharge felt as light or sound, and followed by the ordinary
symptoms.2
2 See the author in lectures on Nerv. Diseases, Disorders of Sleep, p. 63, 2d ed.
In pigeons, injury on one side may get well, but when the canals are
cut on both sides there is permanent loss of balance. In some way,
then, these little organs appear to be needful to the preservation of
equilibrium; and of late some interesting attempts have been made
to explain the mechanism of this function. It probably depends on the
varying pressure relations of the endo-lymph to the nerve-ends
which lie in the membranous canals.
Lastly, excess in venery, or, in rare cases, every sexual act, profound
moral and emotional perturbations, and in some states of the system
mental exertion, may occasion it, while in hysteria we may have
almost any variety of vertigo well represented. Outside of the brain
grave organic diseases of the heart are apt to produce vertigo,
especially where the walls of the heart are fatty or feeble from any
cause. Suppression of habitual discharges, as of hemorrhoids or
menstrual flow, is certainly competent, but I have more doubt as to
the accepted capacity of rapidly cured cutaneous disease.