Rational Philosophy

Two New York Times stories today got me thinking again about the immaturity of nations.Monks March in Protest in Myanmar - “On Tuesday, when 1,000 monks demonstrated in several cities, security officials reportedly used tear gas and fired warning shots to disperse monks in Sittwe, west of Yangon. According to reports received by exile groups in Thailand, some monks were beaten and arrested.”

Calls for Belgium Break-up - “We are two different nations, an artificial state created as a buffer between big powers, and we have nothing in common except a king, chocolate and beer.” - FILIP DEWINTER, the leader of a right-wing Flemish party, on Belgium’s ethnic tensions.

My son just started pre-school. He’s in the threes program but his classroom also has four and five year olds. As the classroom teacher explained it, this helps the children learn to care about and take care of the younger children in the class. By the time the threes become fours and fives they’ve learned how to care for their classmates.

By contrast then the government of nations must be in its infancy. Governments act so frequently liked petulant, misbehaving children. To what end do the misdeeds of the military junta in Myanmar serve the people of Myanmar? When party leaders fuel ethnic divisiveneness in Belgium does it really serve the people of Belgium and the region? And, closer to home, the present administration’s habit of lying to and concealing from the American people its true objectives, motives and methods has surely set back faith in this country and the American democtratic system by many years.

I’m wondering why, philosophically, it would be that elected leaders collectively and regularly act with such immaturity. It would be good for us to figure this out and start moving toward a better place. If countries could learn to act more maturely how much suffering could be avoided?

It would be easy to say that things have improved over time, that there is more global leadership maturity now than there was a hundred or a thousand years ago, and this may be true, but it isn’t dramatically and emphatically true. Today’s governments and the countries they represent have it in their power (and do) inflict far greater harm on one another than was inflicted hundreds of years ago.

My theory is this: Nations, the people in them and those who lead them, don’t agree in themselves nor between themselves on their goals, their intentions and their perspective on global society. We have no conceptual grounding for good government and international relations.

Society is immature because the foundational principles of society aren’t understood and converted into best practices. As societies we act emotionally, irrationally, out of fear and pride and avarice. A sovereign nation is the three year old who holds onto a toy because letting another child play with it, even for a moment, even when it belongs to her, is inconceivable.

On a smaller more intimate scale societies can often function well. Codes of practice are well understood and can be easily reinforced, but more importantly the codes of practice can be clearly tied back to what is rationally in the best interests of the group. The same applies to the better organized, more rational governments of the world, where there has been a great effort to balance the good of all with the good of the individual.

A society that does not seek to balance the good of the individual with the good of the group, a society that permits discrimination, or that allows its government to pursue nationalistic or selfish ends, is illfounded and irrational. Human existence can only persist if we recognize that we all belong to human society, and that ultimately we must work to contribute positively to human society, putting aside our apparent differences.

Plato proposed “philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize” (The Republic, 473c). And when one looks at the numbskulls and charlatans running many of the world’s nations, it seems self-evident that a good dose of reflection and philosophy would serve society well. Or perhaps a few days in a threes program…

Postscript (September 23, 2007):

Since writing this post I’ve tried to imagine George W. Bush engaging in serious self-reflection and philosophical study. Not an easy picture to conjure up. For our leaders to be capable of the serious application of rational principles, we need to reflect upon, consider and apply the same rational principles when we elect them.

A “Teen Magazine” quote from Vanessa Hudgens before her nude photo scandal:

“I’m a good kid,” Hudgens said. “I’ve been brought up with very good morals, and I’m not going to go out and do something I don’t want other kids to do.”

“I love being a role model because, in Hollywood, there aren’t a lot of role models to look up to. The fact that there’s a whole bunch of good kids coming out who are now stepping into the limelight, I’m very proud of that.”

On the face of it, reading this, one could criticize Vanessa Hudgens for being deceitful. But one could also argue that her comments were intended “in character” that she was maintaining a public image as a projection of her clean cut character on a clean cut show. The point here is that her intent makes a difference, philosophically, because intent and perspective shape our moral perspective.

To take a more important example, the current administration, it seems clear, deceived the public about the imminent threat posed by Iraq. The aim of this deception was to follow through on a plan to attack Iraq and displace Saddam Hussein. Further discussion of motive becomes a little more murky. Did the administration believe that Saddam, WMD’s aside, posed the kind of threat that demanded invasion? Did the administration have a “gut” desire to invade Iraq and use various justifications to themselves or others in order to support this “gut” desire?

An accurate moral judgment of duplicity requires a sense of the intent. Does this mean that no act or action is inherently immoral?

If we were to accept this perspective we would throw the moral compass of most people into a frenzy of confusion. Most religions, for instance, identify prohibited or immoral acts or practices.

And if morality requires subtle assessment of intent or perspective, how are we to find a new compass? A rational compass?

But, if we are pragmatic and rational, we cannot hold onto the concept of “immoral acts.” Nothing is inherently immoral. Morality flexes and adapts, it bends to the tide.

We can find a pragmatic and rational basis for morality, a basis that adheres to Plato’s strict indictment:

“Unless someone can distinguish in an account the form of the good from everything else, can survive all refutation, as if in a battle, striving to judge all things not in accordance with opinion but in accordance with being, and can come through all this with his account still intact, you’ll say he doesn’t know the good itself or any other good.” – Plato’s Republic VII

And concurs with his incisive statement:

“The bad is what destroys and corrupts, and the good is what preserves and benefits.” – Republic X

(More on this to come in future postings and in my book…)