On Devils, Detail and Deficits
There's a fantastic piece on the Ekklesia blog by John Heathershaw called " God is in the (political) detail ". Mostly about high level political decision making, Heathershaw argues that good intentions in making big decisions are not enough. The focus is mainly on the war in Iraq, and the claims of the likes of Tony Blair and George Bush that they had high motivations and good intentions. In the context of a complex world, is good faith enough? For Tony Blair, operating in a 'big picture world', it seems it is. However, Heathershaw thinks not: A politician, official, social activist, doctor or school governor who does not pay attention to the details in our complex world is in dereliction of duty, however much good faith she applies. Just war thinking has always agreed with this, not least in its demand that any proposed war ought to be 'winnable'. It's not so much Iraq that interests me in terms of detail, however, as the proposed benefit cuts ...