A lot of people talk about their rights, their freedoms, and their concerns about what “the other” is up to. Unfettered access to heavy armaments with a completely inadequate legal background check is what the 2nd Amendment zealots are focused on; ruining Joe Biden’s and the Democrats’ centrist-progressive agenda is what the plutocratic ne’er-do-wells in Congress (and the SCOTUS) are obsessed with; a heck of a lot of citizens are quite sure they know when, why, and to what extent a woman ought to have the right to choose to abort a fetus. Many millions of Americans are quite checked out from the political system, believe in the virgin birth of Mary more than they accept evolution (the theory), and would rather have a cellphone and car than to try to move up a social class in the next decade.
In short, a lot of people in this country are misguided, unwise, foolish, ignorant, gullible, undereducated, and entitled. I am absolutely reminded of Rome or The Handmaid’s Tale when I think about this country. “The moral arc of the universe is long,” claimed Martin Luther King, Jr., “but it bends toward justice.” I would like to think that is true, but in fact Thomas Jefferson’s barb comes to mind: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
This blog is a short screed that maintains that liberty is lacking in certain key areas for certain classes of individuals (abortion rights, the right to read whatever literature one chooses, the right to choose one’s sexual orientation and gender, etc.) but alive and well for many other classes and groups. Further, responsibility is missing in many areas, too. And as the wise man said, you can’t have rights without responsibilities. It seems pretty inarguable that character, integrity, honor, and excellence are insufficiently appreciated and cultivated by most Americans. In a word, we are not a democratic republic that extols virtue. Whether we did in the past, or if it is in fact mere lore, we certainly need it now!
If we want to survive and thrive, we had better begin to deeply understand and passionately appreciate wisdom, and utilize it to attempt to solve our myriad problems post haste!
When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
That is the trenchant question asked by Neil Peart in the song “A Farewell to Kings” (the title track of the 1977 album of the same name). He is pointing out in his beautiful style that America has always been an experiment in democracy, liberty, and rights (I know, one could write a paper criticizing that statement!). And yet, it was because we have had a dearth of integrity, a paucity of character (in the public and private spheres), and generally did not prize virtue above other competing goods. A good think can turn rotten if it is not cared for; ask the Romans who were alive as the Republic began to suffer from growing pains, unforeseen challenges, and unintended consequences.
America has failed to live up to its potential (yes, the lofty words in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but also the fact that in 250 years we have squandered some golden opportunities and missed some layups, as it were). Social justice, economic equality of opportunity, social mobility, freedom from unnecessary and draconian laws, and protection of the politically weak by the politically strong are all causes for deep shame, I believe.
Barbara Jordan said:
What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.
As well, John F. Kennedy said this which is quite relevant to the failures to make progressive gains over the decades since the colonists overthrew Great Britain and set out to chart our own course:
“Are we to say to the world — and much more importantly, to each other — that this is the land of the free — except for the Negroes? That we have no second-class citizens — except Negroes? Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.”
Neil Peart’s second stanza to the song I referenced earlier is as compelling as it is visionary:
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
[Our] eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance.
In that fierce criticism of America, he is noting that (and this is a poetic interpretation, not to be taken literally) we stopped revering the chivalric ideal—the idea that integrity and responsibility, character and virtue are worth pursuing and highly useful to a society. Unlike Robert Frost, who came to a fork in the road while walking in the woods, taking “the one less traveled by,” America seems to have (with exceptions, of course) chosen the easy path, the one which honors money and power. This country has squandered perhaps the most advantageous timing, geographic isolation, abundant natural resources, and lofty principles (hard work, ingenuity, freedom, educational opportunity) in the history of the world.
As King Théoden said in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when after an egregiously long battle he was injured, enervated, and dispirited:
How did it come to this?
The way Peart extols the virtue of virtue in this song, titled “Beneath, Between & Behind” is nothing short of amazing (full lyrics here):
Beneath the noble bird
Between the proudest words
Behind the beauty, cracks appear…
He goes on to write:
The guns replace the plow
Facades are tarnished now
The principles have been betrayed.
In those words, Peart was clearly indicating that whereas once men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Samuel Adams, James Madison, John Adams, and George Washington led the colonists (some kicking and screaming; some pounding their chests and singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic) to create a country that attempted to circumvent the issues that brought prior civilizations to their knees (and which were, arguably, plaguing England). Yet, over the decades, factionalism began to creep in (much to the Founding Fathers’ disappointment, no doubt), greed continued to devolve into a slavery-based kind of feudalism that ensnared the whole South (f0r many, to this very day!). We increased in size by an order of magnitude that boggles the mind, developed an awesome level of wealth inequality, and we began to slaughter and otherwise abuse the so-called Indians who were clearly here first.
In a word, we “let seeds grow” that grew into thorny vines that are now choking the life out of us.
I could go on, since I love quotes and many of the quotes in the Wisdom Archive are progressive, principled, and unique in nature.
Let me just use the following quote to aptly illustrate how very far we have sunk toward oligarchy, fascism, plutocracy, economic inequality, and frankly, Orwellianism. I fret, grieve, and pace the floor almost daily now, when I compare the yawning chasm between the potential of the citizens of this country and what we actually manifest, tolerate, and foster:
“The fate of any nation ultimately depends upon the willingness of its citizens to lay down — and they must do this — lay down their very lives to defend their country. If we allow the Marxists and socialists and communists to teach our children to hate America there will be no one left to defend our flag or to protect our great country or its freedom.”
That utter bullshit was said by you-know-who: the biggest, gnarliest demagogue—the Hitlerian narcissist himself, Donald Trump.
The fact that the seed of Trump was allowed to grow in the very soil that Tom Paine noted must be watered with the blood of patriots from time to time—if the country is to remain strong and free—is appalling. Millions of men and women laid down their life for this country in one way or another, and that malignant and repugnant “man” has for years run roughshod over our institutions and torn at the delicate threads that hold this society together. It is enough to make Washington roll over in his grave, Richard Nixon comment “God damn America has deteriorated since I acted like a king in the 1970s,” and folks like Helen Keller, Susan B. Anthony, and Eleanor Roosevelt shake their damn heads…
Actually, speaking of women of courage, responsibility, and character, I imagine that if consulted, Emma Goldman would note that she saw the writing on the wall. She also said:
Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man’s enslavement and all the horrors it entails.
Harriet Tubman would probably say that a country that has no honor doesn’t deserve to persevere. Malcolm X in fact said: “You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”
Writer and philosopher Alain de Botton has said this of America:
…the poor were reminded that the rich were thieving and corrupt and had attained their privileges through plunder and deception rather than virtue or talent. Moreover, they had rigged society in such a way that the poor could never improve their lot individually, however capable and willing they might be. Their only hope lay in mass social protest and revolution.
And fellow Frenchmen Thomas Piketty adds this to the mix:
“The egalitarian pioneer ideal has faded into oblivion, and the New World may be on the verge of becoming the Old Europe of the twenty-first century’s globalized economy.”
Sticking with the French thing, Alexis de Tocqueville, the great chronicler of all things American (in the 19th century, that is), opined that “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
….her ability to repair her faults…., he said.
Scholar Michael J. Sandel pointed out, “A century and a half ago, Alexis de Tocqueville praised America’s vibrant civil society for producing the habits of the heart on which democracy depends.” Speaking of a commitment to the collective good, Robert M. Bellah and several colleagues wrote an entire book called Habits of the Heart, in fact (link).
The following absolutely haunting and devastating critique of the decay that has rotted the core of America for quite some time now (link) is from The Guardian (written by Ed Pilkington):
To those who track anti-democratic movements there is a chilling familiarity to this rich evocation of a president descending into an abyss of fantasy, fury and possible illegality. “The picture that the hearings depict is of a coup leader,” said the Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky. “This is a guy who was unwilling to accept defeat and was prepared to use virtually any means to try to stay illegally in power.”
How democracies die…… Let that sink in for a minute.
It truly seems incumbent on the people of this country to wake up and smell the coffee. Yes, ten percent of folks live and breathe this stuff: they are fully aware of the issues with mainstream and social media; they lament the sway that money holds over the minds of the citizenry and those with outsized power; they know well that we are on the way to destroying the habitability of the planet and that many leaders are “doing a Nero” – fiddling while Rome burns, as it were (and plutocrats are counting their dollars while it happens). Yet, others are blissfully ignorant, otherwise occupied, and wholly self-concerned. They don’t see the writing on the wall. They are not benighted fools, but they also don’t quite get the depth of the depravity that Trumpism, white nationalism, fascism, and “totalitarianism creep” pose to the fabric of the nation – in a word, they are persuadable but tuned out. Finally, there are the miscreants and malevolent types who have lost all sense of patriotism, good sense, reality, and virtue. They would sooner go to a local school board meeting to harangue the civil servants about their pet issue – be it vaccines and masks, bad books, or Marxism/progressivism, or the like. They stormed the Capitol on January 6th; they are poor at critical thinking, authoritarian at heart, and in other contexts would be easy prey to sociopaths, cult leaders, and murderous despots.
The question at hand is: if we are on the edge of a knife, what will tip the balance? Will we “go over to the dark side” (a Star Wars metaphor), fall under the spell of Sauron and Saruman (a Lord of the Rings metaphor), or let Ozymandias whisper in our ear (a Breaking Bad metaphor)?
Or, will we access our better angels (a Lincoln metaphor), walk toward the light (a Christian/biblical/religious metaphor), and prize virtue above other more attractive ends, and means (an Aristotelian and concept)?
The very same country – that dream that sprang from the ideas of Montesquieu and Locke and Montaigne and Cicero, and which was carefully nurtured by Jefferson and Franklin and Washington and Paine – that turned the tide of victory in World War II also allowed the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court ruling to make bribery of politicians legal…
The same nation that put human beings on the moon is allowing carbon dioxide and methane to pour into the atmosphere at absolutely disastrous levels…
The very people who moved very quickly to (by and large) accept homosexuals as equals are sort of turning their backs on them as of late — and if Justice Clarence Thomas has his way, abortion rights will not be the only reactionary diminution of liberty in this country (as he has suggested that the Court next look at the rights to birth control, gay marriage, and equality under the law for members of the LGBTQ community). Remember the whole “refusing to make wedding cakes for gays” nonsense? Ya, separation of church and state is going the way of the Dodo if we’re not careful.
The 19th century firebrand Mary Lease said in a speech that is unforgettable, “Kansas had better stop raising corn and begin raising hell!”
And one of America’s greatest success stories, the ingenious Barack Obama, pointed out that
New Orleans wasn’t just abandoned in the hurricane; they were abandoned long ago — to murder and mayhem in their streets, to substandard schools, to dilapidated housing, to inadequate healthcare, to a pervasive sense of hopelessness. That’s the deeper shame of this [disaster].
An American Indian proverb goes, “If we don’t turn around now, we might get where we’re going.”
Indeed, America is under such strain, such stress, that documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said, “I think this is the greatest threat to our republic ever. Not the Depression, not World War II, not the Civil War. This is it. This moment of all these intersecting viruses, of novel coronaviruses and of racial injustice — [a] 402-year-old-virus. And it’s an age-old human virus of lying and misinformation and paranoia and conspiracy. This is the pill that will kill us unless we do something.”
Interestingly, Burns also shows that:
The black-white rift stands at the very center of American history. It is the great challenge to which all of our deepest aspirations to freedom must rise. If we forget the great stain of slavery that stands at the heart of our country, our history, our experiment, then we forget who we are, and we make the great rift deeper and wider.
Philosopher Walter G. Moss correctly and fairly asks, “As heat waves, droughts, flooding, wildfires, and other climate-change related disasters increase … there is evidence that more people, in the U. S. and abroad, will gradually recognize what a dire predicament we have created. But…will it be soon enough?”
America needs to get back to (or, perhaps I should say: move aggressively toward) virtue.
Responsibility must be the way—starting now.
Character should be our highest aim for public officials, presidents of universities, and those who are in power at social media companies.
Instead of popularity, laziness, solitariness, entertainment, greed, and tribalism, we desperately need integrity.
I am not saying I invented those values and virtues. I know they have been around in various cultures for a hell of a long time. And I believe it is patently obvious that societies were born, grew, prospered, and excelled to the degree that they practiced, honored, and cultivated these things in citizens, and leaders. For a while, Rome, Athens, and Sparta (to name but a few) were great, and were responsible for amazing architecture, politics, law, engineering, farming, philosophy, self-defense, and trade. The term Pax Romana and The Golden Age of Pericles because they illustrate what is possible when democracy, perseverance, vision, cooperation, selflessness, and courage suffuse a civilization. China, the Maya, India, Egypt, Crete, Japan, and Arabia have all excelled at various times, and in various ways.
And they all have witnessed their societies peak, and then decline, and, usually, fall. An entire multi-volume work by Edward Gibbon is but one of many that track perhaps the most awesome civilization in human history: Rome. Herodotus and Thucydides also penned amazing, early works of history that ought not to be ignored. Countless modern scholars have written books along the lines of How Democracies Die.
We ignore these warnings – these ostensible sociological and historical facts – at our peril.
None of this is rocket science. We are not solving our grave and numerous national problems because we’re not trying hard enough. The vast majority of our leaders are not leading us well; millions of citizens are not valuing what democracy represents; pastors usually care more about a 2,000-year-old book of parables and fables than they do about the power of love and charity and service; the wealthy are working hard at living a separate life from “the unwashed masses.”
Wisdom has been a thing for at least 2,750 years. Homer, Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Zeno, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristotle, Lycurgus, Solon, and Pericles have spoken many wise words, and written much down. Many Romans such as Virgil, Seneca, Cicero, Aurelius, Cato and Cincinnatus offer counsel and examples that are quite clear, inspiring, and fairly convincing. One thing these diverse individuals have in common (and yes, I get the list is not diverse in other important ways):
They all tend to show in their teachings and writings that wisdom guides leaders, inspires the people, and lights the way.
It probably goes without saying, but let me emphasize: the myths that societies invent and promulgate tell stories of gods and goddesses; of forces beyond those accessible to mere mortals. In them, heroes (Aeneas, for example) and run of the mill characters (tortoises and ants for example) face difficult choices, and phenomena that seem to be woven into the fabric of the universe. Human beings project the good and the bad within, the hopes and dreams and the fears and anxieties deep in their psyches, onto the stars and see constellations, gods, and fortune. Luck has been personified; wisdom has been anthropomorphized, and power has been lionized.
I hope against hope that America can become that shining city on the hill of lore, not the criminal justice nightmare, economic opportunity desert, and educational farce it has become. This will not come about by chance, because if we do nothing the entropy will continue and the rot will spread. We got ourselves where we are due to doing what we have done. Only responsibility taken by each and every one of us can possibly negate this fall, this dereliction of duty, this societal deterioration.
Einstein didn’t exactly say, but it has been attributed to him, that “A society cannot solve its significant problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Even if he didn’t say it, it is certainly Einsteinian toward his final years. Bertrand Russell also advised humanity many times, passionately, to wake up and grow wiser. For example, he said, “I do not maintain that there is nothing better than self-interest as a motive to action; but I do maintain that self-interest, like altruism, is better when it is enlightened than when it is unenlightened. In an ordered community it is very rarely to a man’s interest to do anything which is very harmful to others.”
Einstein did reference responsibility over 60 years ago, noting that, “the release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.”
So, if I had to put a very fine point on my message, it would be this:
Virtue is truly reliable and of the highest value.
Honor is still a thing and has been critical to societies in the past.
Responsibility is the heart of the matter now as much as ever.
Character ought to be the prime requisite for any position of power or prestige.
Integrity is critical to our righting the ship, which clearly is on track for a virtual iceberg.
The values of the wise are the ideal bases to solve myriad, significant problems.
It is not, “Can any of us imagine better?” but, “Can we all do better?” —Abraham Lincoln
Can we make a better world for our children? I believe we can, if enough people are concerned and get involved in changing what is wrong with society. —Benjamin Spock
If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk. —Martin Luther King, Jr.
The pandemic has revealed to us just how fragile our economy and society are. To rebuild them to be more impervious to future trauma is the charge we must take when we emerge. Our greatest lesson is this: We must build a sturdier America. —Charles M. Blow
“Though wisdom is often associated with ‘lessons of life from the past,’ wisdom can be given a future focus — defined as the knowledge, desire, and capacity to create maximal well-being in the future, both for oneself and others. The pursuit, exercise, and ongoing development of wisdom should be the guiding light of our own future personal lives and the future psychosocial evolution of consciousness and humanity.”
—Thomas Lombardo, Ph.D. (link to his new book)
