Why Keynes?

Keynes, described by Clive Bell as having an amount of "cocksureness" that was specifically annoying, contributed nonetheless to the diversity and cultural awareness of the Bloomsbury Group. With artists and cultural connoisseurs on one end and writers on the other, it would appear that Keynes does not have his own place within the group. However, by looking through a third-person and first-person perspective of his character and what values were important to him, we can better judge the rationality behind his involvement with the group. (Left: "John Maynard Keynes, photo by Wittgenstein", with Duncan Grant)

"Maynard was the cleverest man I ever met: also his cleverness was of a kind, gay and whimsical and civilized, which made his conversation a joy to every intelligent person who knew him...I once heard him say...'If everyone at this table, except myself, were to die tonight, I do not think I should care to go on living.' He loved and he was beloved" (388).

This description, although followed by Bell's reminder that Keynes and he had a reciprocal respect rather than platonic love, allows us to see a little bit of Keynes' innate passion among friends.

It is important to note that Keynes genuine love for friendship, above even his own life, revolves around his idea expressed in My Earliest Beliefs of pure simplicity. If religion based upon an "ideal God of Mercy" could be unclouded by doctrine, tradition, and strained relationship, then it could be easier to reckon with the world.(Right: Ballerina Lydia Lopokova (1892-1981) and her husband, economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946))

"If, therefore, I altogether ignore our merits--our charm, our intelligence, our unworldliness, our affection--I can see us as water-spiders, gracefully skimming, as light and reasonable as air, the surface of the stream without any contact at all with the eddies and currents underneath" (TBG 64).

I'm positive his ideas of how government spending and economics penetrated at least a few Bloomsbury meetings; however, I do not think these political ideas were the backing of why he was able to be so involved. The Bloomsbury group, this bohemian group of new thinkers with creativity and culture strapped fast to their personalities, exuded an almost utopian friendship. His image of the water-spiders gives us an idea that he saw the group conversation as a free-flowing stream of thought, onto which anyone could latch onto the surface without being tossed about by angry opinions and claims of right and wrong. (Above: "Keynes by Duncan Grant")

Do you see Keynes' involvement in the group as most beneficial through his devotion as a friend, seeing as he cared so deeply for those around him (although his cocksureness should not be overlooked)?