In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

Argues that a willingness to embrace intransigence allows us to recognize the value of our beliefs
Integrates religious and secular traditions to explain why people adopt a norm of "flexibility"
Includes an extensive section on post 9/11 interrogation and drone policies
Presents new findings about flexibility in WWII Europe, including a look at the occupied British Channel Islands

In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

Description

Flexibility is usually seen as a virtue in today's world. Even the dictionary seems to dislike those who stick too hard to their own positions. The thesaurus links "intransigence" to a whole host of words signifying a distaste for loyalty to fixed positions: intractable, stubborn, Pharisaic, close-minded, and stiff-necked, to name a few.

In this short and provocative book, constitutional law professor Richard H. Weisberg asks us to reexamine our collective cultural bias toward flexibility, open-mindedness, and compromise. He argues that flexibility has not fared well over the course of history. Indeed, emergencies both real and imagined have led people to betray their soundest traditions.

Weisberg explores the rise of flexibility, which he traces not only to the Enlightenment but further back to early Christian reinterpretation of Jewish sacred texts. He illustrates his argument with historical examples from Vichy France and the occupation of the British Channel Islands during World War II as well as post-9/11 betrayals of sound American traditions against torture, eavesdropping, unlimited detention, and drone killings.

Despite the damage wrought by Western society's incautious embrace of flexibility over the past two millennia, Weisberg does not make the case for unthinking rigidity. Rather, he argues that a willingness to embrace intransigence allows us to recognize that we have beliefs worth holding on to -- without compromise.

In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

Preface
1. Thinking About the Way We Think: How Flexibility Can Be Fatal
2. The Politics of Compromise: "Red-Baiting" Takes a New Form
3. The Use and Abuse of Flexible Distortion in the New Testament and Early Christian Thought
4. Wartime France and the Occupied British Islands: Two "Flexiphobes" Unyieldingly Fight the Genocidal Trend and are Joined by a Sitting Judge in Nazi Germany Itself
5. Secular Story Tellers Present the Limits of Compromise: Shakespeare, Glaspell, and Faulkner
6. Flexible Distortions of American Law and Tradition, or How Saints Paul and John Influence Fundamental Social Policy
References
Conclusion, with a Hint on "Performing our Values"
Index

In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

Author Information

Richard H. Weisberg has written about France during the Holocaust and has also litigated successfully in American federal courts on behalf of Holocaust-era victims. He is a pioneer in the Law and Literature movement. He holds a chair in Constitutional Law at the Cardozo School of Law. For some time, these three pursuits have combined in him to provoke thinking about the risks of limitless flexibility, both in behavior and in mainstream thought.

In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

Reviews and Awards

"Richard Weisberg has written a wonderfully contrarian essay attacking the prevalent notion that compromise is a good in itself and instead defending the virtue of sticking to one's principles come what may. Whether or not one is wholly convinced by the well-written and often eloquent argument, with concrete examples vividly presented, it provides an excellent mental workout and thus aids in the clarification of one's own position."--Sanford Levinson, author of Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance

"Richard Weisberg has written an impassioned plea for 'principled tenacity.' He ranges widely, from Antiquity to the present (including especially interesting work on racial laws in Vichy France) in an argument that will surely provoke dissent -- as it is intended to do."--Peter Brooks, Princeton University

"In a bracing and incisive polemic, Richard Weisberg asks us to let go of our Enlightenment/Postmodern preference for flexibility and open-mindedness, and embrace the virtue of the intractability that is said to characterize a steadfast adherence to first principles. Refusing the labels 'dogmatic,' 'stiff-necked,' 'stubborn' and 'fanatical,' Weisberg documents and analyzes the damage done by those who in the name of many-sidedness justify radical departures from plain meaning and plain morality. Witty, learned, and engagingly personal, this book will no doubt provoke spirited discussion and generate a literature of its own."--Stanley Fish, Davidson Kahn University Professor and Professor of Law at Florida International University and Visiting Professor at Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University

"Richard Weisberg's In Praise of Intransigence: The Perils of Flexibility comes as a surprise and a provocation -- and is the right book at the right moment... In our times of too much flexibility, Weisberg's call for intransigence reminds us of our duty to hold on to what's right."--Bernhard Schlink, Daily Beast

"Readers interested in legal theory, moral philosophy, and literature will gain much from this provocative and insightful study." --Library Journal

In Praise of Intransigence

The Perils of Flexibility

Richard H. Weisberg

From Our Blog

Defining intransigence and recognizing its merits

On any given day, a Google search finds the word 'intransigent' deployed as though it automatically destroyed an opponent's position. Charles Blow of the New York Times and Jacob Weisberg (no relation to the present writer) of Slate are only two of many, especially on the political left, who label Republicans 'intransigent' and thereby assume they have won the argument against them.

Posted on August 16, 2014

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Hobby Lobby and the First Amendment

By Richard H. Weisberg The recent Hobby Lobby decision, which ruled that corporations with certain religious beliefs were no longer required to provide contraception for their female employees -- as mandated by Obamacare -- hinged on a curious piece of legislation from 1993. In a law that was unanimously passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) stated that 'Government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion.'

Posted on July 20, 2014

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