“Decorum,” Informality, and Politics in Babbitt and Burke

• In Event: Democracy, Morality, and Norms

Abstract

In 1919, literary scholar and social critic Irving Babbitt wrote that “Decorum is for the classicist the grand master-piece to observe because it is only thus he can show that he has a genuine centre set about his own ego; it is only by the allegiance of his imagination to this centre that he can give the illusion of a higher reality.” While relationships between manners and morals have long been a matter of interest, this paper argues that Babbitt’s emphasis on “decorum” is especially relevant today, and particularly helpful in understanding contemporary politics and diagnosing its problems.
In Rousseau and Romanticism; Babbitt connects decorum to a “classic imagination,” which essentially becomes a “moral imagination” in his Democracy and Leadership and is there closely associated with Edmund Burke. Babbitt maintains that an abandonment of decorum is associated with a Rousseauesque romantic imagination that leads to idyllic and emotionally-based thinking that undermines a sound moral, social, and political order.
Augmenting Babbitt’s treatment of decorum with elements from Burke, decorum is shown to underpin the internal restraint required for a sound liberal-democratic order to function, promoting both humility and a shared pride that helps to elevate behavior. Drawing upon Babbitt’s analysis, this paper explores the precise mechanisms by which an abandonment of decorum, in the form of excessive informality in behavior, speech, and dress, may contribute to decay in American political life, while increasing the potential for arbitrariness and authoritarianism.

Author

• William Byrne, St. John's University