Chapter 1
Notes on “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard”
Chapter Theme
When Drucker first read Kierkegaard, he was not yet 19 years old. He published “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard” in 1949 when he was 40. He included the article at the end of Men, Ideas, and Politics in 1971. In 1992, Drucker again used the article as the last chapter of The Ecological Vision and wrote an introduction to it. This part is titled “Why Society Is Not Enough?”.
In a letter responding to Rosabeth Kanter, among others, Drucker said his intellectual ancestry could not be traced to the sociologist Max Weber but to Søren Kierkegaard—someone Weber had probably never even read. He intended to correct a misconception: some people believed that Drucker, as a management scholar, focused on society alone in his whole life and therefore knew little about human nature or religion. Drucker said that his life’s work began with the lessons learned from Kierkegaard: to safeguard society, society alone is not enough.
In a 1992 introduction to “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard,” Drucker said the article was “written out of despair.” For firstly, it was conceived, written, and published during World War II, a time when humanity had fallen into profound despair. Secondly, one of the article’s themes is the exploration of the spiritual roots of the general despair then pervading society. Finally, the article aimed to clarify the faith tradition to which Kierkegaard belonged, thereby reaffirming hope.
Like Drucker’s other best writings, this article has a dual theme: while discussing faith, he diagnoses totalitarianism. He doesn’t intend to give a textbook definition and answer to the question “What is faith?” Instead, by dissecting totalitarianism, Drucker helps readers realize what faith is not and what poses a threat to it. Moreover, he wants readers to understand that the forces that endanger faith also threaten human existence. It would have been difficult for readers in the 20th century to regain their faith through a theological treatise prattling about faith. But they did keenly feel the pain of the existential crisis brought about by totalitarianism. And, in the starkest way, Drucker’s diagnosis of totalitarianism presents the pain. This is not metaphysics or empty talk, but actual lived experience. Only through authentic
lived experience can modern readers, who have long accustomed to disparaging, despising and disdaining faith, truly realize that what they need is not to judge faith as outsiders but to rebuild their connection with faith as unique individuals. Cutting off the faith dimension from existence is actually the spiritual cause of totalitarianism’s rise.
The entire article is based on an insight derived from Kierkegaard: it is a basic fact that human lives in the constant tension between time and eternity. Faith is not a system, a conclusion, or a dogma, but a persistent experience in constant tension. Every person lives as a unique individual in the tension between time and eternity. The individual can neither break free from existence in time nor rely entirely on time to survive. In the temporal realm, he experiences hope at every moment, but at every moment despair shatters all his hopes; yet at any moment he may take a leap to experience the hope of connecting with eternity. He must experience all this personally, and all alone. This is what Kierkegaard described as faith as lived experience in works like Fear and Trembling. Reading this book for the first time at 19, Drucker immediately knew that something had happened to him. Through Kierkegaard, Drucker found that he not only existed in society but also in the tension between time and eternity. It was not Kierkegaard’s theory that convinced Drucker, but Kierkegaard’s writing helped Drucker put what he had personally experienced into words. Kierkegaard’s masterpiece put actual life experience into language. And Drucker believed that what Kierkegaard described was the basic fact of human existence.
That it’s a basic fact means that people cannot choose to accept or abandon it based on their likes or dislikes. Living in tension is a fact, and man can only accept it, for only by accepting it does he become a human. Here is the core question that concerns religious thinkers like Kierkegaard: How is human existence possible?
Drucker found that the most influential modern thinkers had by inadvertent consensus evaded this question and replaced it with another one: How is society possible? The issue is not that people are ever more eager to focus on society, but that they are more and more inclined to focus on society alone. Various theories, systems, and courses of action had been developed based on society as the only dimension. Although the specific proposals of Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx differ significantly, they all seek to create an illusion for believers. That is, through their own efforts, human beings can create a perfect society and perfect themselves within the confines of time. In Drucker’s view, all these man-made systems and programs obscure and deny the basic fact: Man exists in the constant tension between time and eternity. The eternal dimension of human existence is covered over—all the newest theories hold that humans are purely social animals. Followers of these theories were caught in misunderstanding of existence, with general despair as its most disastrous outcome, which Drucker saw in the 20th century.
The most striking part of this article is Drucker’s analysis of despair.
In the tension between time and eternity, man must experience despair as a unique individual, yet in despair he may also take a leap as a unique individual. That is exactly the biblical Abraham experienced in Fear and Trembling. But the general despair of the 20th century was different. Drucker found that the widespread hopelessness in that period stemmed precisely from the desire to escape despair. New theories focused on salvation by society, without a single exception, aimed to instill optimism in people. According to these theories, eternity is not any longer a concern for human. People optimistically believe there is a perfect solution and, on accepting the solution, human beings will continue to progress and ultimately reach perfection. Such beliefs are seductive because they instill in people a sense of power they never had—a sense of power as a member of the human race. At the same time, those theories help people temporarily escape loneliness—the loneliness of facing despair as unique individuals. In Kierkegaard’s diagnosis, man does everything he can to evade the burden of individuality. He is willing to believe in any empty promise of optimism to escape that burden. As a result, the 20th century was rife with optimistic promises of human progress and social salvation, and general optimism of every kind. Optimistic promises and moods temporarily spare people from facing eternity and despair alone. But promises to build the kingdom of heaven in the temporal world are never realized. More importantly, those who do not wish to face eternity and despair alone still have to face death alone.
People eventually find out that what they’ve relied on to escape is unreliable, and what they hope to evade is inescapable. However, those hypnotized by the promises and moods of optimism have never prepared themselves for that eventuality. Almost instantaneously, they fall from blind optimism into an abyss of despair. And there is no leap out of that abyss. Those who forget the dimension of eternity, either through concealment or deception, don’t know that there is a leap they can make. By severing the tension between time and eternity, people fall into despair in the illusory optimism of the time dimension. And totalitarianism is simply a straw people grasp at when they experience despair in the temporal dimension and do not know what eternity is. That is Drucker’s first great insight….
Notes on “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard”
Chapter Theme
When Drucker first read Kierkegaard, he was not yet 19 years old. He published “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard” in 1949 when he was 40. He included the article at the end of Men, Ideas, and Politics in 1971. In 1992, Drucker again used the article as the last chapter of The Ecological Vision and wrote an introduction to it. This part is titled “Why Society Is Not Enough?”.
In a letter responding to Rosabeth Kanter, among others, Drucker said his intellectual ancestry could not be traced to the sociologist Max Weber but to Søren Kierkegaard—someone Weber had probably never even read. He intended to correct a misconception: some people believed that Drucker, as a management scholar, focused on society alone in his whole life and therefore knew little about human nature or religion. Drucker said that his life’s work began with the lessons learned from Kierkegaard: to safeguard society, society alone is not enough.
In a 1992 introduction to “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard,” Drucker said the article was “written out of despair.” For firstly, it was conceived, written, and published during World War II, a time when humanity had fallen into profound despair. Secondly, one of the article’s themes is the exploration of the spiritual roots of the general despair then pervading society. Finally, the article aimed to clarify the faith tradition to which Kierkegaard belonged, thereby reaffirming hope.
Like Drucker’s other best writings, this article has a dual theme: while discussing faith, he diagnoses totalitarianism. He doesn’t intend to give a textbook definition and answer to the question “What is faith?” Instead, by dissecting totalitarianism, Drucker helps readers realize what faith is not and what poses a threat to it. Moreover, he wants readers to understand that the forces that endanger faith also threaten human existence. It would have been difficult for readers in the 20th century to regain their faith through a theological treatise prattling about faith. But they did keenly feel the pain of the existential crisis brought about by totalitarianism. And, in the starkest way, Drucker’s diagnosis of totalitarianism presents the pain. This is not metaphysics or empty talk, but actual lived experience. Only through authentic
lived experience can modern readers, who have long accustomed to disparaging, despising and disdaining faith, truly realize that what they need is not to judge faith as outsiders but to rebuild their connection with faith as unique individuals. Cutting off the faith dimension from existence is actually the spiritual cause of totalitarianism’s rise.
The entire article is based on an insight derived from Kierkegaard: it is a basic fact that human lives in the constant tension between time and eternity. Faith is not a system, a conclusion, or a dogma, but a persistent experience in constant tension. Every person lives as a unique individual in the tension between time and eternity. The individual can neither break free from existence in time nor rely entirely on time to survive. In the temporal realm, he experiences hope at every moment, but at every moment despair shatters all his hopes; yet at any moment he may take a leap to experience the hope of connecting with eternity. He must experience all this personally, and all alone. This is what Kierkegaard described as faith as lived experience in works like Fear and Trembling. Reading this book for the first time at 19, Drucker immediately knew that something had happened to him. Through Kierkegaard, Drucker found that he not only existed in society but also in the tension between time and eternity. It was not Kierkegaard’s theory that convinced Drucker, but Kierkegaard’s writing helped Drucker put what he had personally experienced into words. Kierkegaard’s masterpiece put actual life experience into language. And Drucker believed that what Kierkegaard described was the basic fact of human existence.
That it’s a basic fact means that people cannot choose to accept or abandon it based on their likes or dislikes. Living in tension is a fact, and man can only accept it, for only by accepting it does he become a human. Here is the core question that concerns religious thinkers like Kierkegaard: How is human existence possible?
Drucker found that the most influential modern thinkers had by inadvertent consensus evaded this question and replaced it with another one: How is society possible? The issue is not that people are ever more eager to focus on society, but that they are more and more inclined to focus on society alone. Various theories, systems, and courses of action had been developed based on society as the only dimension. Although the specific proposals of Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx differ significantly, they all seek to create an illusion for believers. That is, through their own efforts, human beings can create a perfect society and perfect themselves within the confines of time. In Drucker’s view, all these man-made systems and programs obscure and deny the basic fact: Man exists in the constant tension between time and eternity. The eternal dimension of human existence is covered over—all the newest theories hold that humans are purely social animals. Followers of these theories were caught in misunderstanding of existence, with general despair as its most disastrous outcome, which Drucker saw in the 20th century.
The most striking part of this article is Drucker’s analysis of despair.
In the tension between time and eternity, man must experience despair as a unique individual, yet in despair he may also take a leap as a unique individual. That is exactly the biblical Abraham experienced in Fear and Trembling. But the general despair of the 20th century was different. Drucker found that the widespread hopelessness in that period stemmed precisely from the desire to escape despair. New theories focused on salvation by society, without a single exception, aimed to instill optimism in people. According to these theories, eternity is not any longer a concern for human. People optimistically believe there is a perfect solution and, on accepting the solution, human beings will continue to progress and ultimately reach perfection. Such beliefs are seductive because they instill in people a sense of power they never had—a sense of power as a member of the human race. At the same time, those theories help people temporarily escape loneliness—the loneliness of facing despair as unique individuals. In Kierkegaard’s diagnosis, man does everything he can to evade the burden of individuality. He is willing to believe in any empty promise of optimism to escape that burden. As a result, the 20th century was rife with optimistic promises of human progress and social salvation, and general optimism of every kind. Optimistic promises and moods temporarily spare people from facing eternity and despair alone. But promises to build the kingdom of heaven in the temporal world are never realized. More importantly, those who do not wish to face eternity and despair alone still have to face death alone.
People eventually find out that what they’ve relied on to escape is unreliable, and what they hope to evade is inescapable. However, those hypnotized by the promises and moods of optimism have never prepared themselves for that eventuality. Almost instantaneously, they fall from blind optimism into an abyss of despair. And there is no leap out of that abyss. Those who forget the dimension of eternity, either through concealment or deception, don’t know that there is a leap they can make. By severing the tension between time and eternity, people fall into despair in the illusory optimism of the time dimension. And totalitarianism is simply a straw people grasp at when they experience despair in the temporal dimension and do not know what eternity is. That is Drucker’s first great insight….
