Boetcker's Ten Cannots

The Ten Cannots show the world that conservatives believe in prosperity, social justice, community and character but, unlike socialists, they understand that most short cuts to these goals are self-defeating.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) is the father of the Conservative Party’s one nation tradition. He understood that correcting the yawning gap between the rich and poor of his age had to be done without destroying the sources of the nation’s strength.

Disraeli wrote:

"The great problem is to be able to achieve [one nation] without violating those principles of economic truth upon which the prosperity of all States depends".

Boetcker's echo of Disraeli's warning

In 1916 Revd William Boetcker made one of the most important statements of conservatism. He listed his now famous ‘Ten Cannots’.

At the 1992 Republican Convention Ronald Reagan wrongly credited Abraham Lincoln with the 'Cannots'. But it was Revd Boetcker who wrote:

“You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

Each of the 'cannots' point to vigorous virtues that conservatives applaud - prosperity, personal growth, social justice, employment, opportunity, thrift, community, security, character, and independence.

But the 'cannots' remind a society that there are no short cuts to these goals. Impatient socialists who fleece the rich may gain a short-term windfall for their schemes but at the long-term expense of a dynamic, job-creating economy.

The fable of the golden goose

Aesop's fable of the golden goose provides a vivid illustration of Boetcker's warning. You cannot have the golden eggs if you kill the golden goose:

"One day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold.

Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs.

As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.".

And Aesop's moral: “GREED OFT O’ERREACHES ITSELF.”

Comments

[Batuhan]

I agree with Fiona… well most of the time. Your point at the end sums up for me what this is all about. We are 21st Century Conservatives, connected to cunrert society. You don’t do this by saying your views are “mainstream” or be by claiming that your outlook is “conventional”. You do it by being mainstream and conventional, and I define these terms by looking at the UK as a whole not one segment of it. Where we will have to agree to disagree is that you can’t easily define any one person as being a this or a that. We are all more complex than that. This should not be a land grab between different sections, but a discussion of ideas

[Channery]

Thanks Julian – tried posting this comment to your blog, but couldn’t get a profile. Anyway ….I posted the Big Society Network launch document to see if we could spark some discussion pre-election on what’s needed at neighbourhood and national level to support social action, so we are a bit more warmed up for whatever government we get. I think there’s some good ideas in the Conservative proposals … and the Network … and some potential problems.Without more discussion there’s a danger, if the Tories win, that the unexamined package is handed to someone in Cabinet Office with instructions to come up with some quick announcements.If Labour is back the good will be binned with the less-good.I can understand social entrepreneurs being a little cautious about engaging too heavily one way or the other with the Tory plans, but the Network is billed as independent and so could provide a neutral space to develop more thought-out ideas.Thanks for getting us started.

[Camila]

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[ニューバランス スニーカー]

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