Ethical Universe

The cultural war in America is such a big, complex topic that it can not be adequately treated in one article. So, the present post should be considered as the first in a series of articles.

To begin with, let us attempt to circumscribe the problem a bit. Then we will attempt a little comedy relief before launching into such a serious discussion. The following list is not intended to be exhaustive, in a sense it is just pointing out the obvious. Here, we again take a little solace from Albert Einstein who once said, “Genius is the art of recognizing the obvious.”

At this juncture it is unclear whether any of our institutions can turn the tide of moral decline in America. In stark terms, drunk and disorderly seems to understate the materialistic, carnal degree to which our popular culture has descended. But, alas, public ethical breaches that would make denizens of Sodom and Gomorrah blush are not our only problem. Even a partial list of other issues facing the American people is intimidating:

Culture Wars
– Moral-relativism versus Absolutism
– Evolution versus Creationism
Global warming
Energy policy (or lack thereof)
Stem Cell Research
Race Relations (or lack thereof)
War on Terrorism
Widening gap between rich-poor (domestic & international)
Gay Rights controversy
Growing social divide, increasing alienation
Abortion rights
Immigration policy
Middle East morass (sometimes called Arab/Israeli politics)
War on drugs/crime
Deteriorating infrastructure (roads, bridges, water supply etc)
Trade deficit (with China, India and Russia)
Looming demographic wars
– Growing entitlements (with smaller percent working)
– Health care crisis
World hunger, health and education
Domestic Education
Gender divide
Science/engineering gap
Campaign Reform

Certainly, colloquial idioms are of little help in guiding us toward any answers. To
illustrate the futility of attempting to base ethical choices on often well meaning ‘advice,’ this writer compiled a list years ago of pairs of adages that are diametrically opposed to each other. The exercise was done mostly for fun but it also had a rather serious purpose – convincing myself of the utter absurdity of blindly following other people’s advice. It is also sobering to realize that each of the items can be carried to an extreme; and that there seems to be a philosophy of life for every conceivable point of view! The following is a sampling of the list that grew to over 100 entries. The reader can no doubt add to the list: And I sincerely hope they do by commenting on this post.

POINT - COUNTER-POINT

Reach for the stars – Enjoy the simple pleasures
Better safe than sorry – Go for the Gusto
All’s well that ends well – Ends never justify the means
Stick with a winner – Variety is the spice of life
An eye for an eye – Forgive and forget
Hope for the best, plan for the worst – Beware of self-fulling prophecy
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth – Beware of strangers bearing gifts
You can’t judge a book by its cover - Clothes make the man

Unfortunately, on a more serious note, science is not much better at handing out advice. With the notorious flip-flops on important issues we have seen from the scientific community in recent years (e.g., coffee used to be really bad for you but now it’s actually good for the liver according to N.C. McAvoy, Clinical Research Fellow, and P.C. Hayes, Professor of Hepatology, Liver Unit, Royal Infirmary Of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland), the general public does not know what to think; so, consequently it doesn’t think about the serious issues we face very much.

The feeling seems to be that somehow public officials will recognize the tremendous needs and set about addressing them even though none of them have been given a mandate by the people to do so. Our public institutions in general are little help in our collective paralysis. They seem powerless to even adequately define the problems, much less agree on comprehensive and painful solutions. The U.S. Congress has lost so much credibility with its perpetual gridlock that we have come to expect self-serving partisanship, extremism, corruption and
gross incompetence. We have not been pleasantly surprised.

The tremendous influence of special interest groups also continues to exacerbate the problem. Even ostensibly looking out for everyone’s best interest does not guarantee an ideal outcome. For example, the separation of Church and State advocates (some would say zealots) has been uncommonly successful at protecting us from state sponsored religious dictums. But another consequence of this otherwise honorable goal is that morals in general seem to have also been largely removed from our political process as well, being replaced with extreme ideologies from the left-right political dichotomy.

As long ago as ancient Greece, it has been known that ethics can not be separated from politics. Plato and Aristotle taught over 2000 years ago that they are reflections of each other in a democratic society. Deviation from this fundamental truth fosters political expediency of the worse kind and of course moral decay at the highest levels of governance. But, of course, our elected officials only reflect the ethical makeup of their various constituencies. And American voters seem determined not to give any side a significant mandate to really change things. So, the real problem points back to us, the people. Before we will see significant progress on all the public issues we face, we the people must stand up to the question underlying all the others: Why are we so extremely divided on every public issue?

Following posts will attempt to address at least some of these issues.

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