Morality,
Money, and a North Star … Every Nation’s Need
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 11/11/18
If
I had to choose between my children and grandchildren being good or smart, I
would choose good. Smarts can be
acquired; good is a condition of the heart.
Today the world needs far more good than it does smarts.
People
and nations are now such close neighbors that what affects one of us affects
all of us. In America we speak of “the
common good.” We are better known than
any other nation for being Good Samaritans to each other.
Whether
or not our political divide grows wider and begins to test friendships and
community spirit, there are moral principles that will ever stand, even if we
don’t stand by them.
If
your house is on fire, do you care what political party or religious persuasion
your assisting neighbor clings to? No,
you care only about the size of his water bucket and how fast he can run with
it. Therein, somewhere, lies a moral
principle, one to which Americans have adhered since our woodsy New England
days and later our little houses on the barren prairie. Americans help each
other.
Americans
don’t believe in killing the infidel or in the divine right of kings. Neither the religious teachings that sprung
from the lower Middle East nor the centuries-old monarchy/royalty of Europe
define us. It’s America and the American
ethic that still remains a beacon to the world.
Morality
is merely the adherence to particular principles. Worth of the individual is a principle, one
that monarchy, communism, and socialism oppose.
Marital fidelity is a principle, one that America has let slide. Like the old slide rule and the level, which
crooked walls don’t like, principles are unchanging goal posts that tyrants and
lusty men don’t like.
“Don’t
steal” is a principle, and I shall never forget my father’s contribution to my
embracing it. After a supper table discussion
of a local theft, he drably remarked, “Well, even if you’re hungry, starve to
death and go to heaven, but don’t ever steal.”
While some might smirk at such absolutism, I was inspired by it.
Morality
matters. It certainly beats tooth and
claw, and has kept many a family and nation together. Without the “civil” in civilization, there
would be no civilization. Moral
principles foster civilization. They are
the do or die for the home and the nation.
Money
matters also, if you desire a roof and some food. From the beginning of time to the late 1700s
every nation was poverty-ridden, with only the thinnest level of wealth and
wealthy people at the top. That changed
with the rise of capitalism. How strange
that a growing number of Americans could oppose a system that took hold not yet
300 years ago and began to increase wealth and food at every level. How is it
that Henry Ford and even Mitt Romney are scorned as “capitalists,” and why are
today’s capitalists so inept in defending capitalism? What makes it hard to defend a system that
has acquired a roof and food and even a yacht for some?
Again,
a principle is needed. Sociologist
Charles Murray, who after taking the stage was forbidden by students to speak
at the University of Michigan and Middlebury College, provides one: “Capitalism
is the economic expression of liberty.”
Some, of course, would reject this principle, but if they know history
at all, they could never replace the word capitalism with socialism. Socialism equalizes. Free enterprise does not. It rewards work. Socialism is supposedly compassionate. If so, it is coerced compassion which is no
compassion at all. It is government
taking from Peter to give to Paul, even if Peter does the producing and Paul
sits at home.
Business
moguls like Andrew Carnegie believed that government has a role in capitalism,
but they didn’t favor stymieing or killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Whatever
the system, there must be a method for perpetuating it. America’s method is participatory,
representative democracy arrived at through elections. Many opponents of Donald Trump still refuse
to acknowledge his election, claiming he is “not legitimate.” If Republicans refused to acknowledge the
Democratic takeover of the U.S. House (they wouldn’t) and called the new House
membership “not legitimate,” it would be hypocritical for Democrats to
criticize them.
If
Americans start rejecting the outcome of elections, we will be taking the civil
out of civilization. An enduring moral order, a North Star, is necessary for
American civilization to continue. One
can find a North Star path in an ancient book called “The Exodus” (Section 20),
and in a famous 1st century sermon called “The Sermon on the Mount.” Check them out.
Roger Hines
11/7/18
No comments:
Post a Comment