It has been an interesting last couple of weeks, that is for sure.
I have had the great opportunity to be able to listen to different philosophers and theologians speak in depth about the meaning of life in various forums while celebrating a momentous birthday on the day the U.S. and Israeli forces attacked the Iranian leadership.
When I had the chance to respond to various well-wishers about my birthday, I was able to speak with several long-term Washington, D.C., friends about Iran and the current state of affairs of politics in general.
The amazing thing was each conversation centered around the very thing many people are so concerned about today in our elective discourse and process — how do you trust people who are in elected positions to make the best decisions for us as a nation and as a people?
Concurrent with such conversations were a series of discussions I had helped set up for 25 scholars from the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that were held on the campuses of NC State, Duke and UNC Chapel Hill. One of them was on the intellectual and philosophical history from ancient Athens to our modern American democratic republic.
The critical role of understanding how philosophy, intellectual inquiry and theological belief have shaped the American democratic republic is often neglected and even ridiculed in some left-wing circles today. Ronald Reagan understood the fragility of our system when he said American values could vanish in one generation if we don’t work to educate each new generation about why we live in the democratic republic that we do so freely and cavalierly today.
Aristotle wrote about how ethics and virtue should shape each person’s life, which then in turn governs how we all should act in a civil society as we try to live together in peace and harmony. Obviously, we have fallen short of the ideals of which he wrote, but we still have a chance to make things right, don’t we?
As I was speaking with my long-term D.C. friends about current events, we all remembered various times when we were in meetings with elected officials, candidates, pollsters and campaign managers and a contentious point would come up and ignite a spirited discussion.
In the good offices, there was always one person who would ask this great question: “Is this the right thing to do?” In the great offices, that question would be asked by the elected politician or candidate — thereby setting the tone from the top. Such a great leader would ask each attendee to offer their fair and honest assessment of the situation so he could evaluate the merits of each argument and then make the final decision and move on with it.
That one question — “Is it the right thing to do?” — would quickly pierce through the often sticky, gamey shell of elective politics and produce a lively, open discussion that brought together the various philosophies, religious beliefs, worldviews and intellectual experiences of everyone in the room. Each argument had to be supported by some claim to a historical philosophical, theological or intellectual train of thought and couldn’t be offered simply as a “feeling” someone might have had at the time.
Politics may be the only forum where such an array of serious, mature thought must be brought to bear to make decisions that will affect the greatest number of people. Accountants, hospital administrators and business executives make critical decisions every day that affect individual people’s lives, and they have to consider the ethical and moral implications of their impending decisions as well. However, politics is the one area where millions of people’s lives are impacted one way or another by the collective decisions of our elective legislative bodies. Sadly, politics is one area in America that most people consider to be broken in some manifest ways.
It has to be fixed, correct? However, what is broken in our politics won’t be fixed by one person or one political party. The great danger to our elective system is when people of high character and intelligence cede the battlefield of ideas to candidates who couldn’t care less about understanding the long, rich history of intellectual and philosophical thought in Western civilization. Or worse, how about ceding the battlefield to candidates and political factions who openly seek to undermine and overturn the basic American principles and values on which we all depend?
Thomas Jefferson wrote often about how elective service is one of the highest callings a person could be called to in their lifetime. Understanding the rich intellectual, philosophical and religious underpinnings of our democratic governance is a very close second because without such a vigorous understanding by the voting populace, it truly could vanish into the ether of history.
Ask any candidate this year to explain why they think a policy they support is “the right thing to do.” If they can’t answer it in a coherent way without getting all tongue-tied with a look of anguish on their face, then you may have your answer on whom to support or not.
