Corrupt ideas underlie most problems facing America today. We are informed and guided by ideas that not only debase the human spirit but corrupt our relations with other persons, nature, and God. Being so enslaved, spiritual alienation and its effects are destined to strike at our efforts to forge an integral human existence.
The mythology of the self-contained, autonomous individual is one such idea. This myth shapes much of American culture, including its socioeconomic and even religious life. But if the truth be told, the notion of the autonomous individual is only a mask that enshrouds an inner emptiness and aloneness. It is the same mask worn by Citizen Kane whose lust for power denied him the fulfillment he sought. It is the mask worn by Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. It is a truth that permeates the paintings of Edward Hopper and the photographs of Robert Frank. It is the cry of anguish that radiates from the spirituals of the cotton picker, the painful stories of the rural and urban Blues artist, the social voice of 1960s R&B, and the modern prophet crying out from the wilderness of the street, the poetic artists of Rap and Hip Hop.
Neither power, nor wealth, nor reputation can free a man from his existential aloneness. Lurking behind every Horatio Alger story is a human tragedy waiting to unfold. Every person reels under the weight that disaffection lays on their soul.
Yet beyond individual autonomy and spiritual alienation lies a deeper truth. From the depths of one’s being, the person cries out for love. Love liberates. Without love no one can be free. It is only by being permitted and affirmed through the love of the other — and the Other — that alienation can be mitigated and the person be made whole. Such is the intrinsic logic of personal dignity. Such is the intrinsic logic of individual freedom. Such is the intrinsic logic of marriage. Such is the intrinsic logic of the family. Such is the intrinsic logic of an integral human society. And such is the intrinsic logic of human solidarity and the brotherhood of man.
To mitigate the corrupting influence of this myth, there is little we can do effectively beyond mounting a critique of its central ideas and unmasking the imprint its logic has made on our culture. No other course is open. But herein lies a conundrum. The persuasion of this myth already shapes how we observe, judge, and act. In large measure, it already determines the outlines of our imagination and creativity. For this reason, we are inclined to remain passive in its presence and oblivious to the collective fate its logic dictates. Isolation and disaffection is what we seek without knowing or wanting it.
But America’s problem runs much deeper than corrupt ideas. Beyond a crisis of ideas, logic, and truth exists a crisis of the intellect. American culture is essentially anti-intellectual. This anti-intellectualism is rooted in the nominalist and voluntarist traditions of modernity and is given explicit formulation and expression in the Enlightenment. America is founded on that tradition. But how can we address a crisis of ideas, logic, and truth when our culture is essentially anti-intellectual and when truth is judged a priori to be relative?
America’s default response to this dilemma has not been to correct the logical deficits inherent in corrupt ideas, but to mount practical solutions to what is presumed to be practical problems. Of particular note is the penchant to regulate and control human behavior by using extraordinary legal means.
Prohibition is a classic example of the instrumental use of law to control individual behavior. In 1920, the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors were constitutionally banned in the US. While the intent was to improve the well-being of society, Prohibition created instead a huge demand for illegal alcohol and a dramatic growth in organized crime. Mob boss Al Capone controlled over 10,000 speakeasies in Chicago alone, and he supplied all the bootlegging business from Canada to Florida. Prohibition was clearly a failure. The American public was unwilling to uphold the law. For this reason, it was rejected by constitutional amendment in 1933.
More recently there has been a move to constitutionally ban abortion and gay marriage. Both efforts have failed in part because the nation remembers its experience with Prohibition. But analogous to Prohibition is a Nixon initiative, namely, the war on drugs. Like Prohibition, this legal tactic has been a dismal failure. Its most tangible effect has been to create a growing demand for illegal substances and spur an international drug enterprise to serve that need. But even worse has been its dehumanizing impact. The war on drugs has legitimized the incarceration and/or enslavement in the criminal justice system of over a million Americans each year. Despite a heavy hand, or because of it, the war on drugs has failed in every respect to achieve the ends for which it was created. Contrary to intentions, it has made America to be a lesser place for tens of millions of otherwise innocent Americans.
Whether it be the war on drugs, the war on crime, the war on homelessness, or the war on poverty, success never seems to follow the nation’s intent and effort. Even when every tool at the nation’s disposal is employed to force a reduction in the incidence of dysfunctional behaviors and dislocations, the instrumental use of the law, or a parallel system of economic incentives and disincentives, have been found to accomplish little beyond cosmetic alterations.
Indeed, hasn’t this been the principle outcome of the pro-life/pro-choice debate these past thirty-five years? What positive advances can anyone claim? The only truthful reply, or so it seems, is nothing has been gained whatsoever. This war, like so many others, has only encouraged further contradictions to erupt in our society. Social fragmentation has not diminished; it has increased. The incidence of abortion, and substance abuse, and homelessness, and poverty have not diminished; they have increased.
Contrary to general assumptions, then, America’s moral and spiritual crisis is not rooted in personal or institutional failings. It is not a mere function of behavior. Its ground runs deeper and penetrates to the originating ideas of the culture themselves. The crisis of the intellect and of truth constitutes the bedrock of our nation’s moral and spiritual predicament. It has bracketed-for-failure efforts to alleviate spiritual alienation and social fragmentation. Corrupt ideas such as the autonomous individual shape our culture. They shape our behavior and our responses to behavior. They shape our thought processes and the creativity of our imagination. They are the root causes of our national predicament and they must be unmasked and laid bare. Only from this starting point can we find a way to alleviate the dynamics of spiritual alienation and the social, economic, political, and religious fragmentation that are its symptoms.
In recent years, especially, US leaders have set the mind adrift and conceded the end to justify the means in policy deliberations. This recklessness has undermined stability at home and abroad. To bring order out of the present confusion, a new intellectual precision is required to ground policy debate. A person-centric logic and language must be developed to supersede the prevailing logic of numbers and ideology. Policy impacts lives in ways that are neither quantitative nor fanciful. Poverty, health and war are serious matters, and decisions made about them impact human lives in profound and lasting ways. Only a qualitative logic can attend to the concrete truth of the person and offer what we intuitively seek: an intellectual basis for sound policy formulation and a moral basis for leadership.
To that end, it is imperative to: 1) make proper use of principles intrinsic to personal dignity, individual freedom, and human solidarity; 2) craft a concrete political language based on those principles; 3) develop this language as the instrumental form of an inspired leadership; and 4) transform the national dialogue accordingly.
Sound public action needs to be bound inexorably to a just order of perfecting relations, a non-abstract order of fairness to all. To articulate and accede to the principles inherent in the person, freedom, and solidarity is to maintain faith with our common heritage, and the intrinsic yearnings of the human family. It is to unleash a dynamic that can unite each American in solidarity with one another and with the brotherhood of man. To refuse this course is to go on “running to nowhere.”
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