No Man is an island, but a piece of the continent, a part of the main (John Donne) ¹
In Yuval Noah Harari’s books he credits the survival and prosperity of the first homo sapiens to their sharing of foraging tactics within their own kind and their ability to fend off competitors. But, as Harari also notes, their survival had a downside. By 1500 BC, their shared foraging ability had expanded their territory, gradually starving out and then eliminating many large animal species and all other human species. Harari termed their success as the first wave extinction. Subsequently, as they learned to till the soil, their farming expansion created a second wave extinction, decimating hundreds of species of birds, snails, insects, and fauna. In addition, since the beginning of human recorded history, the competition for resources, territory, and power has sent millions—perhaps billions—of fellow humans to their graves in internecine wars. The rise and fall of tribal hordes, empires, and nation states has continued throughout human history. But, as of this date, we humans have not yet succeeded in eliminating our own species. In fact, we have re-populated the planet, at the expense of yet more biological species and despite increasingly horrific wars against each other. The question for our time is whether we are amid a third wave extinction that may include ourselves. Will humanity come together in time to protect its legacy and preserve its posterity? Perhaps more to the point, are the community of nations prepared to avoid another world war or preclude a climate disaster? Likewise, will the United States hold together against radical attempts to tear it apart? The answers to these questions are implicit in the hope and promise of two unions—the United States of America and the United Nations. Both hold the future of our species in the balance.
The United States is daily dissected and vivisected by political rancor, violence, insidiously deceitful demagoguery, and the lustful pursuit of power and money. Americans seem unable to agree on what constitutes truth-telling, the intent of our Constitution, or even the nature of our democratic system of government. Suddenly, it appears questionable whether a political party can invalidate an election, whether a state legislature can overrule the electorate, and whether classical liberalism promotes states’ rights over Constitutional rights enforced by the Federal government. Concerning this last point, maybe I am being too harsh. The common definition of classical liberalism may represent only a partial mis-reading of Thomas Jefferson’s position on state’s rights. Although he believed that “the true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the states are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations,” ² he also explained in his Declaration why independence became necessary. Therein he not only enumerated the King of Great Britain’s “injuries and usurpations” against the colonies but characterized them in terms of the King’s refusal to “Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Clearly, he believed the colonies needed a government dedicated to the public good. In his letter to James Madison, where he proposed Constitutional amendments (that were later adopted), he made no mention of states’ rights. ³ How then could he conceive this newly formed union if states’ rights were not subordinate to the general welfare? His core argument against the imposition of imperial laws was simply that they were not in the public good. In other words, the newly formed Federal government must assure that all States meet the mandate implied in the Declaration’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That mandate was further clarified by the rights defined in America’s founding document, its Constitution. Thereby, when any State deviates from rights guaranteed or implied in our Constitution, it is no longer American or “part of the main,” which is the United States of America. ⁴
Let’s put the “public good” under scrutiny in relation to current issues. For example, we have the “pro-life” movement which would prefer to eliminate all abortions. Its primary assumption is that a human is created at conception. This assumption is based upon a belief, like the belief in the ascension of Christ’s body into heaven. Religious beliefs may differ among religions and are all protected by our Constitution. These beliefs, like those of all religions, animate human impulses for good. But we do not treat fertilized eggs in labs as human beings or bury our dead in open caskets so they can rise again. Otherwise, we would force women to become surrogate mothers and curtail burials and cremations. Likewise, we have gun advocates who believe the Second Amendment authorizes unrestricted purchase and use of all forms of guns, including weapons of war. But the “right to bear arms” was intended to support “a well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state.” Hence, America established the National Guard under the supervision of its States. But the “right to life” and “right to bear arms” movements cannot justify banning abortions or allowing anybody to purchase Ar-15 assault rifles, respectively; for these “rights” both diminish lives of women and endanger the lives of nearly everybody else, as witnessed by the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook and Robb Elementary Schools. With respect to women, who once could not own property, vote, or earn pay equal to their male counterparts, America would return them to second class citizenship or worse by treating them like livestock. (Note: ranchers own their cows and decide for them.) And with respect to gun safety, they authorize gun mayhem in place of gun safety measures, effectively making America the world leader in gun deaths per capita amongst all other countries. Where in these distorted rights can we recognize the public good? What we can identify is the impact of single issue voters and the impact they have on certain elected officials. They contribute to campaigns and show up in the polling booths. But those elected in this manner do not serve the public good or our democratic union, just their constituency that keeps them in office. In other words, they serve themselves, a very small part of the whole we call the United States of America.
But disunion amongst Americans is not only an internal problem, but a dark mirror reflection of a world order torn between democracies and dictatorships. After the catastrophes of the 20th century World Wars, it became necessary to redefine the relationship of nations within an international context, to include a more global perspective. Although the United Nations is an attempt to define these relations and assure territorial integrity and sovereignty of all member states, these territorial and sovereignty rights continue to be violated. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the latest witness to such rogue behavior. Since war between independent states can now threaten nuclear annihilation, the concept of a “world war” truly has planetary significance. My previous blog suggests a re-thinking of the role the United Nations might play in this and future conflicts between nations. But, besides nuclear war, there are many concerns about international relations that demand more global cooperation. For the past five years, a world famous economist, Thomas Piketty, has been writing about the economic ties that bind us as independent nations and as a human race on this planet. ⁵ He simply could not and cannot envision a “globalized” world wherein economic inequality and global warming are not addressed. What he calls fiscal and climate “dumping” are prohibiting the nations of the world from joining in the common pursuit of life and well-being of all humanity. Many governments—both democratic and dictatorial—allow the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor, while permitting or even supporting societal and economic practices that accelerate global warming. As whole populations are threatened by nuclear war, economic instability, and environmental catastrophes, all inhabitants of earth are threatened by the prospects of an uninhabitable planet—effectively, of exclusion from their “piece of the continent” or “part of the main.”
How do we characterize an America divided against itself where divisions amongst political parties degrade into so-called “culture wars” and the legal definition of the public good differs from state to state? Likewise, what does the invasion of Ukraine mean to the United Nations’ charter that attempts to support the sovereignty of member states? Implied in the answer to these questions is more than a loss of ideals that have been sought and matured over many generations. For this loss not only defies a hard won legacy but invites chaos, where the ideal of democracy loses its luster and the goal of assured world peace disintegrates in the bombed-out rubble and genocide of modern warfare. If there is no longer consensus on self-government and an international coalition to assure world peace, then what future remains for humanity? Perhaps humankind will return to dictatorial rule and tribal warfare. Human history is replete with despots and wars. In fact, we are a unique species that often returns to subjugation of the racially different, the powerless, or the “other” who are arbitrarily termed undesirables. But elimination of our human scapegoats is in truth an attack on our posterity and potentially on our own survival as a species.
When I ponder humanity’s relation to the world, my mind turns to the writings of Martin Buber wherein he advises us to encounter the world rather that to possess it. His “encounter” implies a special reverence for what is, where being fully present can draw us into a relation. For his “encounter” does not imply possession or conquest, but rather an immersion into a personal relation to the people and things of our world. When anyone of us can say “I am the world,” we proclaim an existential relation that transcends whatever material part of the world we own or rule. We establish our unique identity with the world we inhabit and a shared bond with all of humanity. We then become custodians of a common inheritance of which we are an integral part.
The theme of this blog can be understood as an adjunct to a previous blog (reference “American Exceptionalism Revisited”). Therein, America’s ascendency in world affairs is explained in terms of its pursuit of wealth and economic hegemony. But America’s financial success often interferes with its aspiration as a democratic success story. This blog attempts to address why we still struggle to realize our founding idealism. How does an individual, a community, or even a nation realize the universal humanitarian ideal of securing “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all as “unalienable rights?” Will systemic racism, power-hungry political factions, the decimation of nature’s resources for financial profit, or the economic inequality spun from hyper-capitalism secure that ideal? I think not! Is it not obvious why our democracy is still struggling to realize its promise?
As human beings, we have a twofold nature. Our origin is born of this planet, composed of the same elements as the stars, evolved from single cell life forms into complex beings, and made interdependent with all the natural resources and other life forms with which we share this planet. But we also are distinct as an animal species because of the physical structure of our brains and nervous systems. Consequently, we are self-motivating, meaning we have both the intellectual capacity to visualize a future and the will to create that future. But free will is a two-edged sword: we can build or destroy, we can nurture life or maim and kill, and we can love or hate. With this freedom, then, comes responsibility. And, of course, in our current context, we can strengthen our democracy or destroy it, just as we can attempt to unite nations in peaceful coexistence or stumble into another world cataclysm, even a nuclear holocaust. Responsibility is both awesome and frightening.
America’s ability to realize it’s promise rests solely on its citizens’ responsibility to model its democratic ideals. And that modeling will never occur until we Americans realize and accept that responsibility. “I Am the World” is not just the realization of an “ah-hah moment.” It is rudimentary to recognize you are of this world for you involuntarily reflect that world in yourself. But when you become aware that each and every human reflects the world through the varied prism of his/her life experiences, you begin to understand the limitless complexity of which you and every other human are a part. You can become a partner in a multi-faceted but mutual relationship with others. The fog of ego can lift. And in that moment, you know you are in a shared communal reality. You begin to understand what it means to be a person, a part of all humanity, and a citizen in a democratic society. Only then can you begin to understand how Americans can raise the torch of Lady Liberty over that “shining city on a hill” and participate constructively in the peaceful coexistence of the world’s nation states. . . or not.
_______________________
¹ This is the opening line of a poem I once committed to memory. But I can no longer attribute it to a particular publication, because it is not even in my copy of John Donne’s “Poems of Love.”
² Merrill D. Peterson, “Thomas Jefferson and the Nation,” pp. 627.
³ Saul K. Padover, editor, “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson,” (Paris, December 20, 1787, a letter to James Madison concerning the Federal Constitution,), pp. 312-313.
⁴ For more on this topic, you might reference “A More Perfect Union.”
⁵ Thomas Piketty, “Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021.”