Mouse Talk

The talk went well. The Q & A lasted 1 1/2 hours, ran overtime, and sometimes ranged far afield from my theme, while staying loosely connected. A simple idea ran through my remarks, that the form of government is not primary in determining the happiness of the people governed, but Reason is. A "lberal democracy" led by fools is just as likely to produce tragedy as any other type of government if the others are led by men of wisdom. I made the point, though, that "a truly liberal government, founded on democratic principles and operated by men of integrity and wisdom would be superior to any other form of government. The problem with liberal democracy, as reflected in the example of it with which I am most familiar, is that men of integrity and wisdom cannot be elected to high office . . . The media, having discovered what sells, deals in trivia. The infamous OJ trial, the constant barrage of “mother kills her babies” stories, and the occasional hostage event in New Jersey, tell us nothing fundamentally necessary for our understanding of the difference between good and evil. Consequently, in a well-financed and widely-advertised race against the charlatan, the honest man has almost no chance to succeed. By definition, the honest man is restricted to the truth, whereas the charlatan, also by definition, is free to use all available forms of chicanery to make himself seem more fit for office than the man who actually is. So what we have in America are races among charlatans, some of whom are out-and-out fools."

But the "fools" are not more foolish than nature has made them. No one of a right mind would doubt that the nations of the world, the religions of the world, and the cultures of the world are different. What may not be quite so admissible is that few of the world’s people can truly be said to be “of a right mind.” We have become members of our nation, culture, and religion by means so personal, so private, and so automatic that we are, by our nature, convinced that our “molecule” is the one ordained and prescribed by God to be His gift to humanity. This is natural. A body can explain away only so much difference. Rationalizations are needed. But so long as we hold to the belief that our molecule was ordained by God, we will not, and perhaps cannot comprehend that the members of the other molecules feel equally as certain of their righteousness, no less convinced that their God has created their molecule as the perfect representation of His design. In that regard, few of us or them are of a right mind.

If we need an excuse, well, then let us excuse ourselves on the basis of our ignorance, for we cannot possibly know all the data relevant to any matter, much less one so complex as the differences among the world’s cultures. Okay. We’re excused…but we must not make the mistake of believing that our ignorance, that our powerlessness, that the suppression of our freedom by governments, families, and religions has justified our neglect of the way we relate to the world and the way the world is. We cannot claim that our leaders are responsible, and not ourselves. Bush is not “Bush;” he is us, for we have empowered all our leaders to do what they do. The blood shed by their commands stains our hands, and condemns our souls, as well as theirs. True, we did not listen to the arguments for and against, we did not decide, we did not issue the orders. We simply approved in advance. If we were not altogether clear when we gave our approval, if we were exposed only to an advertiser’s cleverness, only to fuzzy symbols, and only to gussied-up pictures of the people we have authorized to act on our behalf, our ignorance may be twice removed, but our responsibility remains. It is not exculpatory for us to argue that we were not possessed of a right mind. To become active forces in the world, and not its passive victims, we must take all the responsibility upon ourselves. If we have, by our passivity, permitted our minds to be enslaved…well, we are, by a nature we cannot change, our own masters…and thus, our own slaves….

Or so it seems to me.