Absolute vs. Responsible Behavior: Why We Need Both

What Max Weber's "Politics as a Vocation" can teach us about life

The Absolute Ethic

The Absolute Ethic is when we go all-in, 100% devoted to an idea or a quest, heedless of consequence, willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Using our hoped for “end” to justify the “means” of our pursuit.

When I was an Absolutist

How often in our lives do we really and purely go “all-in?"

For me the answer is one time, when at age 22 I fell in love with my wife, 21 years old. She was dating (in love with, she told me) another guy at the time; he was still in college, so I had the crucial home field advantage. For her, I dropped everything else in my life–––family, my best friend,¹ work to the extent I could. I ignored another friend’s advice to give her an ultimatum to break up with the other guy. Instead, I waited patiently for her to decide between the two of us even as it tore me up inside. I never pressured her to make a decision. My ego was subservient to my goal.

To put it plainly, we were in love behind her boyfriend’s back. It was morally wrong, but I didn’t care. She got stomach aches of guilt whenever the phone rang. (1984, landlines, no cell phones, helpful to my cause)

Then, after two long months, she announced she was ending things with my rival and would be with me exclusively. I was glad, but not nearly as ecstatic as my future wife expected me to be. Because I immediately realized that I had made a huge moral commitment to our future together. She had ended an 18 month relationship with another guy, who she’d said she’d loved, to be with me. Somehow I knew marriage was in the cards.

We’re about to celebrate our 38th anniversary. I attribute it to perseverance and luck, my wife to fate. The boyfriend has never married. Do I feel guilty? A little.

Max Weber Was Not a Relationship Coach

Max Weber was a brilliant and famous scholar who developed many foundational concepts about history, science, and politics. In 1919 he delivered a lecture to students called “Politics as a Vocation.” I’ve read it many times because it’s so rich (and dense) in its content and ideas. ² What struck me this time was how his idea of these two opposing Ethics––Absolute and Responsible––could be applied not only to politics, but also to life.

Weber’s Examples of the Absolute Ethic

Weber considered a life devoted to pure religious faith to be an Absolute Ethic and unsuitable for anyone who truly wanted to grapple with the world. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and its advice to turn the other cheek was unsuitable and impractical for almost everyone.

“…except for a saint it is an ethic of indignity.”

For a political example, Weber cites the attitude of socialists during World War One who “rooted” for the war to be as long and destructive as possible so that their socialist dreams might be realized from the ashes. Awful means justifying a dubious end.

Top of mind for Weber was how the victors of World War One were using an Absolute Ethic of revenge against Germany by pursuing a peace of punishment and blame regardless of the consequences. Weber, like Keynes, foresaw that the harsh peace the Versailles Treaty imposed on Germany would lay the seeds for the next war. ³

The Ethic of Responsibility

For Weber, the Ethic of Responsibility was to see the world as it is rather than what we want it to be and act accordingly, aware of the consequences of our actions. Balancing all the time between passions and practicality, between “What I Want” and “What is Morally Right.” Most of us strive in our lives to adopt this Ethic of Responsibility as much as possible. It is rational and prudent, and it is the mindset we want our political leaders and the people close to us to follow.

In contrast to a follower of the Absolutist Ethic, someone following an Ethic of Responsibility will usually be a better companion as they’ll have many important goals and interests as opposed to a singularity of purpose. Absolutists such as workaholics and cult members and lovestruck 22 year olds make for poor friends.

With the Responsible Ethic, however, decision making is more challenging since different goals and interests are often at odds, especially as we think about allocating our time. ⁴

A Responsible Ethic means that sometimes you’ll make decisions that will cause harm. Rather than turn the other cheek, often you’ll fight back. And maybe you’ll overreact and, in private life, lose a friend or, if you’re the leader of a country, start a long and bloody war that never needed to be fought. To be Responsible does not demand the impossible of always making the right choice, but it does demand being clear about the pros and cons and facing the consequences of your actions.

When Weber gave his lecture in 1919, Germany was convulsed by violence and revolution in the aftermath of its defeat in World War One. Everywhere he looked, Weber saw Absolutist behavior and an absence of the Responsible Ethic. Groups holding diametrically opposed visions of Germany’s future clashed and chaos reigned. Weber was deeply distressed by his country’s turmoil and deeply pessimistic about its future. He was a patriot and out of his despair came advice he hoped would help mold a better and more Responsible future generation of German politicians.

Well, he tried. ⁵

When the Two Ethics Come Together

As you go through Weber’s lecture, you expect him to reject completely the Absolute Ethic in favor of the Ethic of Responsibility. But he doesn’t.

Weber realized that you needed to have an element of an Absolute Ethic to have the passion necessary to embark on any arduous and risky venture. Entrepreneurs start companies knowing the odds of success are minimal, but their passion for their idea makes them do it. In politics, to embark on a quest to become the powerful leader of a nation you must have some animating passion for a cause, whether it’s to help the poor, to change your nation’s culture, or, in too many cases, have a hunger for power for power’s sake alone.

There’s another vital use of an Absolute Ethic. Sometimes, despite adhering to an Ethic of Responsibility, you encounter a situation so dangerous or so contrary to your sense of justice, that, in Weber’s words, you

“reach the point where [you] say here I stand, I can do no other.”

I imagine we’ve all experienced transition points like this when we move from an Ethic of Responsibility to an Absolute Ethic, because we can do no other. An example of such a transition from my own experience is contained in this footnote.⁶

Briefly, What is a Nation?, the 2024 Election

Weber’s Definition of a Nation

The most important single political line ⁷ from Weber’s lecture is his definition of what constitutes a state (nation or country):

“a human community that successfully claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a territory.”

I’ve encountered no better definition. Our Civil War was fought over slavery, but it was also fought over preserving the Union’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

The 2024 Election and Donald Trump

In a democracy, legitimacy is conveyed by following the rules of selecting leaders and then having those leaders obey the laws of the nation.

As we approach the 2024 election, there’s one undeniable fact that cannot be erased and must not be forgotten. After the 2020 election, Donald Trump, as President, tried to undermine the legitimacy of our democracy, violating his oath to preserve and protect it. Trump followed an Absolute Ethic based purely on his ego and lust for power. His behavior led to January 6th.

Trump’s attempt to undermine the legitimacy of American democracy presents the rare occasion where the Ethic of Responsibility and The Absolute Ethic come together seamlessly to shout from the political rooftops “Here America Stands; Trump Cannot be President.”

My Favorite Max

Max Weber’s photo is as dour as dour can be. Here’s my grandson Max to balance out the two Max’s. (My daughter and son-in-law want to make it clear that their Max was not named after Max Weber!)

One last thing: this post was inspired by

Susan Bordo

whose article below is brilliant and cautionary. She makes a compelling case that the liberal media’s 2016 coverage effectively elected Trump by harping on Clinton’s weaknesses and that the same liberal media is now making the same mistake by harping on Biden’s age.

Max Weber had a lot to say about irresponsible journalism, but that’s for another post.

How the “Liberal” Media Helped Make Trump Happen

Comment Question

Have there been circumstances in your life when you’ve adopted an Absolute Ethic? How did it work out?

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Notes

1. My best friend and I “broke up” over my neglect of him after I fell in love, and only very recently, after almost forty years, have we reconnected by chance and rekindled a friendship that had been so valuable to us both.

2. Weber was both brilliant and equipped with a wide-ranging knowledge of so many cultures that in reading his lecture it is easy to get lost in the thickets of his scholarship. But there’s so much of value in it, that I’ve found studying it is worth the effort. Below, I’ve included a link to the lecture’s full text.

http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/class%20readings/weber/politicsasavocation.pdf

“… after a victorious war, the victor in undignified self-righteousness claims ‘I won because I was right’.”

3. That attitude led to the Versailles Treaty, which Weber saw had one great flaw.

“A nation forgives if its interests have been damaged, but no nation forgives if its honor has been offended.”

4. Just like with investments, a non-diversified Absolutist life comes with a greatly heightened level of risk.

5. First came the weak Weimar Republic, then came Hitler.

6. Heres my personal Example of going from an Ethic of Responsibility to one of Absolute Ends: I was Board president of my children’s Jewish Day School, which was part of a large synagogue on the Upper West Side.  For reasons I considered unseemly and based entirely on ego, the leaders of the synagogue treated the headmaster of the school (beloved by the parents) with great disrespect. I defended and protected the headmaster behind the scenes for many years until the synagogue powers set out to fire him.

At that point, I, along with others, went public with petitions and meetings that created a great deal of dissension and controversy. I knew the synagogue had the authority to fire him, and that we would lose in the end, and we did. The Responsible course of action would have been to accept the inevitably of the outcome, but my fury would not let me stay silent,

7.

Matthew Yglesias

has a huge following for his substack he puckishly called “Slow Boring,” a phrase taken from another famous line in Weber’s lecture.

“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.”

Hillary Clinton used the full quote in her 2016 campaign.