A Mendacious Triangular Trade (Part VIII)

Now that we know that the power to think is not the same as thinking, we can no longer claim "the devil made me do it." We can speak of our ideas, both the good ones and the bad ones, as things we have created. We can look at the way we're running our affairs with full knowledge that the power driving them is ours.

If you think that's "common knowledge," ask yourself what the word "humanism" means, and what those who use that word as a pejorative are talking about. You might more easily disregard as mere verbal farts the utterances of those who ask God to bless their nation (or their rifles), but even those empty shibboleths convey an attitude of irresponsibility. The fact that we are alone in the universe hasn't caught on yet. The vast majority of humankind still thinks the universe was created for their benefit and that no matter how badly we fuck things up the Creator will somehow come to our rescue. As Mark Twain once said of man, "He thinks he's the Creator's pet."

Well, we're not. We're an evolved tribe of thinking animals, more able than most to adapt to that part of our environment that is not human. Perhaps chimpanzees have better than we found a way to abide with their own kind, but then, they are less imaginative than we are. They lack the power to fret over the fact that the supply of bananas as a ratio of the number of chimpanzees relates directly to the general welfare of their population. They lack the power to see that their world might be made better if those who disagree with them were murdered. They lack human qualities.

Without becoming more satirical than I (and Mr. Twain) already have, and wishing to say something more positive about the human condition, I think it might be a step in that direction to quote the preamble to the American constitution. You see, that's one thing I have noticed about humanity in general: it hasn't set forth its purposes quite so clearly as the founding fathers of one small nation a couple of hundred years ago did in these 52 words.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

"We the people" . . . wow. Humanist words, We the people . . . taking full responsibility for what we have set out to do . . . and then listing what those purposes were to be:

• To form a more perfect union
• To establish justice
• To insure domestic tranquility
• To provide for the common defence
• To promote the general welfare
• To secure the blessings of liberty

. . . I ask this question: are those the sorts of purposes all the people of the world might subscribe to? And if the answer is "yes," then why haven't they?

I don't ask because I expect to hear answers, and certainly not because I know the answers. Like the French soldiers I mentioned a couple of days ago, we all have our reasons for doing what we do. Those poor fellows followed Napoleon to Moscow and a horrible death because they had not taken full and conscious personal responsibility for their action. They didn't actually decide to go to Moscow; they just went. They didn't bounce the whether to go or not against a list of purposes like those in the preamble. In taking the action they took they were no more than a herd of sheep, following a leader into danger simply because they thought the lead sheep knew what it was doing. They didn't think.

They probably didn't even think they had the right to think. They thought that when a designated leader ordered them to risk their lives, it was their duty to obey without question. To this day that notion remains the case. Even in a democratic republic, in which the government rules by the consent of the governed, citizens are expected to respond to the call to arms and not to ask whether the call implements the principles upon which the republic was founded. Ours not to reason why/Ours but to do or die.

I'm convinced that the obligation to serve one's country should be given considerable weight in reasoning upon the question of whether to "do or die," but to set duty above all other considerations would be to abdicate the most fundamental of all human responsibilities: the power -- and indeed, the obligation -- to think. In this day and age, where the lead sheep has the means to communicate the "reason why" in clear and distinct language to one and all of those he or she is asking to "do or die," to fail to specify the reasons, or to speak falsely of them, constitutes the highest form of treason. For the sins of those traitors who merely turn the colors of their coats fade almost to nothingness beside the treason of those who betray the very foundations of the republic.

I have difficulty imagining how a world such as ours would work if every citizen were actually to think about every major action of his or her government. It does seem likely, though, that most people would regard such a world as a better one than the one we have. I do not doubt, however, the practicalities of a world governed by open and honest leaders. It may be the case that not everyone would understand, for example, why an expansion of free trade to the entire world is bound to result in a lowering of the standard of living in the nations that currently enjoy standards far above the average. It does seem, though, that the hardships could be more easily accepted if those being asked to bear them were told the truth of the long term benefits of that expansion. Given the choice, free trade or continued world wars (assuming an honest case could be made for those alternatives), a majority of the affected people may indeed choose the pain of free trade. But even if they didn't, they could then consciously hold themselves accountable for their choices. Told simply that this or that policy is "good for the world," without further explanation, we should not be surprised if the people do not understand why they are waking up in the same sort world they went to sleep in.

Yes, but . . . being adaptable, people kept in the dark learn to enjoy the dark, finding in the sound of their own constantly complaining voices, evidence at least of their ability to express something of themselves.

It's hard to say what would be the effect on people if they were -- at long last -- made to feel personally responsible for the world. That circumstance has yet to unfold. Perhaps this blogging thing that so many millions of us are engaged in will lead to such a world.

But again, a big but . . . as I read over what I have written today, perhaps it will be just another way for a put-upon people to voice ineffectual complaints.

Maybe tomorrow things will improve . . .