This book argues that the novelist Joseph Conrad's work speaks directly
to us in a way that none of his contemporaries can. Conrad's scepticism,
pessimism, emphasis on the importance and fragility of community, and
the difficulties of escaping our history are important tools for
understanding the political world in which we live. He is prepared to
face a future where progress is not inevitable, where actions have
unintended consequences, and where we cannot know the contexts in which
we act. Heart of Darkness uncovers the rotten core of the Eurocentric
myth of imperialism as a way of bringing enlightenment to 'native
peoples' - lessons which are relevant once more as the Iraq debacle has
undermined the claims of liberal democracy to universal significance.
The result can hardly be called a political programme, but Conrad's work
is clearly suggestive of a sceptical conservatism of the sort described
by the author in his 2005 book After Blair: Conservatism Beyond
Thatcher. The difficult part of a Conradian philosophy is the
profundity of his pessimism - far greater than Oakeshott, with whom
Conrad does share some similarities (though closer to a conservative
politician like Salisbury). Conrad's work poses the question of how far
we as a society are prepared to face the consequences of our ignorance.
