Applied Mendacity
Yesterday I blogged about the two fundamental lies that constitute the political substance of the American system of government. The blog was a complete failure. You see, I had entertained the notion that someone might take the idea seriously and begin to wonder why in the world a good American like the Mouse would say the nation’s highest ideals were lies. Instead, all I got was a snide remark from one of my dearest friends, to which I replied with equal “snididdity,” which was no way for a gentle Mouse to treat a friend. What made this so bad was that I knew my friend to be quite capable of finding an explanation for the Mouse’s arrogant behavior. She had, herself, just the day before acknowledged in her own blog that it has been humanity, and not God himself, who has loaded God with the tons of religious baggage he’s carrying around these days. In other words … we have all been lying about God. How much less can it be to acknowledge the lies upon which our nation is founded.
Well, perhaps there is a difference. Presumably there is a truth about God, and perhaps that truth could be found if we unloaded the baggage. But there’s no guarantee that such as a truth about the way we ought to govern ourselves exists. I acknowledged in my blog that quality of humankind that seems as if it were God-given, our existential freedom, but was quick to point out that our freedom to do as we please is exactly the reason we need governments.
On reflection I might have achieved a more meaningful response had I been more direct in saying what I had to say. I had thought – stupidly – that it would have been much better if I left unsaid “the moral of the story,” and left it to my readers to discover for themselves the truth of those two lies. I still believe that we have to discover for ourselves the bedrock constituents of our creeds, and not have them drummed into us by teachers, preachers, and gurus, however well-intended those worthies may be. But I guess, if we wish to share our beliefs – and that’s exactly what I was doing yesterday – we have to be much more specific than I was being. I was expecting people to be mind readers.
OK. Here’s the straight of it.
The human embryo, and hence the human being, is not imprinted with ideals. We are not born knowing that “all people are created equal.” We are in fact born believing the opposite, that we are the center of the universe. We are not born believing that “all people are endowed with unalienable rights.” We are in fact born believing that we have rights that all others are obliged to respect, We are born as selfish children. We have to be taught to be “good citizens.”
But who’s to teach us? Well, no one, if we expect our teachers to have been born into a different, all-knowing species. Our teachers derived their principles from the same sorts of places we did. They got their ideals from other human beings, and if we trace back far enough, we’ll discover that some other human beings – with names like Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson – made them up. Now I know that things that are just “made up” are not necessarily lies. I thought – again, stupidly – that if I called them lies I might attract more attention than if I just called them “made up ideals.”
Didn’t work that way. It didn’t work at all that, because human beings created the ideals upon which our nation is based, we should take ultimate pride in recognizing the greatness of which humankind is capable. It didn’t work at all that we should take full responsibility for believing our lies, that we should defy anyone who thinks our lies are not working to make up better ones. It didn’t work at all that we should each acknowledge ourselves as the source and sustenance of the dream.
Maybe I would have let it go, but this morning I received an email from another blogster asking me to write something encouraging people to write out a statement of their Credo. (Capital “C” intended.) He told me that he had done it and that he thought it would reinforce everyone’s commitment to life if they were to openly state the principles guiding their decisions. I told him I would make such a request, but I found that I couldn’t get into it until I made it clear that all such creeds are made-up things. We might claim we based them on authoritative sources like the Bible, or the Constitution, but in order to take full and unquestionable responsibility for our creeds, we have to confirm ourselves as the persons who decided to take those sources seriously. And in order to do that – and to know that we had not foolishly bestowed our allegiance – we ought to have a clear understanding of why we did that. We ought to think hard about those things we agree to treat as authorities.
For you see, in addition to making us free, God has also made us reasoning animals, and just as we may exercise our freedom in self-destructive ways, so may we also use reason to justify what is essentially false. So maybe that’s why the friend who emailed me this morning found making a Credo so useful. When we write something down, something like a statement of beliefs, we are forced to ask of ourselves if we are telling the truth in the practical sense of the word. If for instance I were to write that I believe all people are created equal, I am not necessarily saying that’s a fact. I am saying simply that I am running my life on the assumption that all people are created equal. If that’s the truth, if I am actually treating my fellow human beings as if they were my equals, then it wouldn’t matter that the statement itself was true or false. My part of the real world would be operating as if that statement were the truth.
And that’s what I meant yesterday when I spoke of the dialogue that we as individuals ought to be carrying on with ourselves. If we hear in our mind’s mind the voice of those two lies I spoke of, if we are guided by the small voice of our most precious ideals … if we are true to our own lies, and if they are good lies … well, you see, that’s how the God of the Bible – if he were real – would have us behave, not merely as obedient to “the law,” but as a law unto ourselves. (Reread the “Sermon on the Mount” – Matt 5-7 – with that idea in mind.) (Or read Spinoza’s proposition 43, in Part Two of the Ethics.)
The world works better – anything works better – when we take responsibility for making it work. Maybe taking the time to write out a Credo will be a good beginning, or a good way to reaffirm our commitment to making our nation a workable place. And maybe if we do that … who knows, maybe even the world will work out better for those it’s not working so well for at the moment.
Well, perhaps there is a difference. Presumably there is a truth about God, and perhaps that truth could be found if we unloaded the baggage. But there’s no guarantee that such as a truth about the way we ought to govern ourselves exists. I acknowledged in my blog that quality of humankind that seems as if it were God-given, our existential freedom, but was quick to point out that our freedom to do as we please is exactly the reason we need governments.
On reflection I might have achieved a more meaningful response had I been more direct in saying what I had to say. I had thought – stupidly – that it would have been much better if I left unsaid “the moral of the story,” and left it to my readers to discover for themselves the truth of those two lies. I still believe that we have to discover for ourselves the bedrock constituents of our creeds, and not have them drummed into us by teachers, preachers, and gurus, however well-intended those worthies may be. But I guess, if we wish to share our beliefs – and that’s exactly what I was doing yesterday – we have to be much more specific than I was being. I was expecting people to be mind readers.
OK. Here’s the straight of it.
The human embryo, and hence the human being, is not imprinted with ideals. We are not born knowing that “all people are created equal.” We are in fact born believing the opposite, that we are the center of the universe. We are not born believing that “all people are endowed with unalienable rights.” We are in fact born believing that we have rights that all others are obliged to respect, We are born as selfish children. We have to be taught to be “good citizens.”
But who’s to teach us? Well, no one, if we expect our teachers to have been born into a different, all-knowing species. Our teachers derived their principles from the same sorts of places we did. They got their ideals from other human beings, and if we trace back far enough, we’ll discover that some other human beings – with names like Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson – made them up. Now I know that things that are just “made up” are not necessarily lies. I thought – again, stupidly – that if I called them lies I might attract more attention than if I just called them “made up ideals.”
Didn’t work that way. It didn’t work at all that, because human beings created the ideals upon which our nation is based, we should take ultimate pride in recognizing the greatness of which humankind is capable. It didn’t work at all that we should take full responsibility for believing our lies, that we should defy anyone who thinks our lies are not working to make up better ones. It didn’t work at all that we should each acknowledge ourselves as the source and sustenance of the dream.
Maybe I would have let it go, but this morning I received an email from another blogster asking me to write something encouraging people to write out a statement of their Credo. (Capital “C” intended.) He told me that he had done it and that he thought it would reinforce everyone’s commitment to life if they were to openly state the principles guiding their decisions. I told him I would make such a request, but I found that I couldn’t get into it until I made it clear that all such creeds are made-up things. We might claim we based them on authoritative sources like the Bible, or the Constitution, but in order to take full and unquestionable responsibility for our creeds, we have to confirm ourselves as the persons who decided to take those sources seriously. And in order to do that – and to know that we had not foolishly bestowed our allegiance – we ought to have a clear understanding of why we did that. We ought to think hard about those things we agree to treat as authorities.
For you see, in addition to making us free, God has also made us reasoning animals, and just as we may exercise our freedom in self-destructive ways, so may we also use reason to justify what is essentially false. So maybe that’s why the friend who emailed me this morning found making a Credo so useful. When we write something down, something like a statement of beliefs, we are forced to ask of ourselves if we are telling the truth in the practical sense of the word. If for instance I were to write that I believe all people are created equal, I am not necessarily saying that’s a fact. I am saying simply that I am running my life on the assumption that all people are created equal. If that’s the truth, if I am actually treating my fellow human beings as if they were my equals, then it wouldn’t matter that the statement itself was true or false. My part of the real world would be operating as if that statement were the truth.
And that’s what I meant yesterday when I spoke of the dialogue that we as individuals ought to be carrying on with ourselves. If we hear in our mind’s mind the voice of those two lies I spoke of, if we are guided by the small voice of our most precious ideals … if we are true to our own lies, and if they are good lies … well, you see, that’s how the God of the Bible – if he were real – would have us behave, not merely as obedient to “the law,” but as a law unto ourselves. (Reread the “Sermon on the Mount” – Matt 5-7 – with that idea in mind.) (Or read Spinoza’s proposition 43, in Part Two of the Ethics.)
The world works better – anything works better – when we take responsibility for making it work. Maybe taking the time to write out a Credo will be a good beginning, or a good way to reaffirm our commitment to making our nation a workable place. And maybe if we do that … who knows, maybe even the world will work out better for those it’s not working so well for at the moment.
posted by Benedict S. at 11:25 AM
3 Comments:
All right, I'll work at this a little. Surely there are some absolutes in which I believe. But what if they are lies? Are they someone else's lies or my own? Of course I don't think they are lies at all, and in fact, I can't even think of any absolutes in which I believe, absolutes which govern my behavior. An organic education taught me trial and error is the only way to learn, and you'll never stop learning. There is no point in thinking you've got it, because something new may be discovered tomorrow and you must be ready for that. I'll give this creed thing a go, but not before I state the following: This blog was more fun yesterday. (Particularly the comments!)
Miss FF: Comment about blog noted. That aside, you seem to have caught the gist of it anyhow, even if it was less fun.
Ideals are not absolutes. They are workable fabrications. (You seemed uncomfortable with "lies" -- and justly so.) The more people who agree with them, the better they work. "Trial and error" certainly guided the fellows who put together our Constitution. The 13 states had each of them made at least one Constitution, and the 55 guys who got together in Philadelphia to hammer out a better one than the Articles of Confederation had all those trials and errors at their fingertips. Then they started thinking, banging heads, "trialing" and "erroring," and finally they got what we've got. That we have amended it many times attests also to the "trial and error" nature of building ideals.
This is a quotatiton of Mikhail Gorbachev ... suggesting that not only Americans know right from wrong.
President Kennedy's words of peace were obviously relevant when the world was under the real threat of nuclear conflict. But the world situation of our times is in many ways similiar to that of 1963, and those words are perhaps even more appropiate and meaningful today. Let us not forget that JFK also said that any society that cannot take care of its most vulnerable members would also not to be able to defend it's prosperous majority. The future will have to be for all of us or there will be no future at all. Almost half a century has passed since JFK sopke those important words. Sadly,those years have been wasted. They have perished, as did the man who spoke the words. We should do everything in our power not to squander the years to come. Today, it is important to look back on what has come to pass and what has not come to pass, as we seek to evaluate the new realities of the world and to arm the human community with new knowledge, new thinking, and a new vision. Without that,we will find it very difficult to rise to the challenges that confront us.
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