maximalism”.^84 This reminds us of the missionary excesses of some of the
abolitionists in the nineteenth century who envisioned the end of slavery as the
opportunity either for the slaves to become “good” Christians and/or the subjects
of a “benevolent” British imperialism. In doing so, it suggests that a dose of “moral
minimalism” might be beneficial to the politicisation of our humanitarian impulses,
inevitable as that politicisation, and our moral presumption, may be. Walzer cites
organisations like Amnesty International as possible models of how to move “from
the particular to the general,” arguing that they can have an effective critical role to
play, “so long as they restrain whatever impulse their members have to impose a
complete set of moral principles across the range of cultural differences.”^85 There is
an interesting set of ideas at play here. Here in Britain, Amnesty relies on the
support of highly committed moral maximalist actors, religious groups for instance.
Yet it seems plausible that it has more power contesting torture in a Latin American
country than a delegation of Church of England bishops. Simultaneously, within that
Latin American country, it will probably be part of a broader campaign, involving
perhaps delegations of local priests. So while at first glance Walzer’s
internationalism may seem rather too minimal in the eyes of many “progressives,”
this may be deceptive, the thinness contains many possibilities, illustrated by
Amnesty, the creation of Peter Benenson, a Jewish Old-Etonian Labour lawyer
whose moral conscience was sparked by classical internationalist causes such as the
Spanish Civil War.^86 Indeed, his initial “Appeal for Amnesty” referred, in words
similar to those of Walzer cited above, to the motivating potential of moral disgust
as spur of a practical humanitarianism:
The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these
feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action,
something effective could be done.^8784
85 Walzer, Thick and Thin , 49.
86 Ibid.
For an excellent account of Amnesty and its origins see Hopgood, Keepers of the Flame ,
54-57. 87
Ibid., 56.