Democracy in Action
Krieger, Terry
10 The Alternative November, 1971 undisclosed measure, American "'prestige" had fallen below some magic level among some undisclosed foreign constituency. It was not always this way...
...Surely these morally intense critics are not against that...
...Morality, for moral men and moral nations, is an other-regarding thing (which has nothing to do with being an "other-directed" man...
...Action done from a sense of "pure duty" deserves criticism, but unfortunately such action is often criticized as "'moralizing...
...Those who criticize America for 9" moralizing" are guilty of terminological imprecision...
...But this should be selfrestraint in the interest of others...
...American liberalism of the Holmeslan variety is a very different commodity than that liberalism which animated the supremely confident politics of the nation's founders...
...Johnson was once moved to exclaim, claim, 9"I am willing to love all mankindexcept an American...
...The Hoimesian 'free-market" substitute for real moral reasoning cannot, in the long run, satisfy the American search for real moral duties any more than the "'Federalist" self-interest ethic can...
...It is but a short step to the belief that confidence in the worthiness of your civilization must be a violation of the canons of philosophic propriety...
...What these critics should properly be against is the national oscillation between pure self-interest calculation and "'pure duty" as its motives for action...
...Their intelligence is bewitched by their language, and they are led into pereeiv~ ae dnother false altt, c, ative...
...If "~e only riational sitis in foreign affairs were sins of commission, we could safely withdraw from that realm, and with that simple act gain exemption from sin...
...And it is the counsel of despair, born of cynicism, to believe that moral reasonings are incompetent in the great and deadly business of promoting justice and felicity between nations...
...Markets test preferences, not truth...
...In fine, however-much our present liberalism prods us, we must reject the Holmesian nation that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the marketplace of ideas...
...For surely, for men and nations, there are" both sins o1 commissioh and sins o] ommissh~n...
...But they were hardly "other-directed" men...
...It is true of slave men and slave nations...
...For example we may accept the erroneous idea that a nation is behaving morally only when it is not intervening in the affairs of other nations...
...Remember, the danger that the nation will embark on policies of "'pure duty" stems from the nation's longing for some moral imperatives better than those demanded by the "Federalist" morality of calculation, and this kind of noble imperative cannot be drawn from Holmesian liberalism...
...Among unsuccessful candidates were Arthur (Slow Motion Shorty) Paricer, Tim (Connecticut Slim) Moylan, .who sang what the New York Times described as "an obscure love song," James (Big Town) Gorman, James (Open Road) Langford, and Sam Long, better known as Scissors Sam, who urged the crowd !to throw a real bum into office...
...That is the counsel of cynicism...
...In the interest of avoiding the evil of what they mistakeningly call a "'moralizing" foreign policy, they cast doubt on the possibility of a moral foreign policy...
...This idea presupposes that, for nations, the only-sins are sins of commission...
...It was not always this way with American political leaders...
...But it does not follow that we must or should shun morality...
...To be sure, even if one desires a foreign policy fashioned to fit our finest moral precepts one can go astray...
...To do so would imply the belief that, in the long run, moral behavior is dysfunctional or otherwise imprudent...
...James Russell Lowell, poet and practicing dove in the great national debate about the Mexican war, was moved to declare: .'~rhey are slaves who dare not be -- In the right with two or three...
...As President Kennedy declared in the ringing conclusion to his Inaugural Address, when we go forth to do right on this earth, we must act "with a good conscience our only sure reward, and with history the final judge of our deeds...
...Morality often does involve selfrestraint...
...In this regard, Boswell records that Dr...
...This, it is clear, involves an oscillation between being ignoble and being dangerous...
...What we do not need is a dangerouus disjunction between the life of calculation and the fulfillment of real or imagined duties...
...Johnson was exclaiming like that in 1778, when Americans were busy doing what they believed right and necessary, in spite of the protestations of such distinguished foreign opinion...
...Richard (Pennsylvania Kid) Wilson was elected King of the Hobos at the SeventyFirst annual National Hobo Convention held in Britt, Iowa...
...Hence this liberalism is not only reckless, but, in thelong run, it even lacks the ability to prevent the more dangerous kinds of moral recklessness...
...Two Types of Sins Not surprismgly, in reflecting about the nation's international rights and duties we are led back to one of the oldest questions in the Western philosophy -- "Am I my brother's keeper...
...We are left with nothing but a vague sense of obligation to all mankind -- but this obligation is empty -- it is politically void because mankind does not exist as an operative unit in the world order...
...Hence we must also reject the doctrine that the best test of a policy is the power of the policy to win applause in world-wide popularity contests...
...They were not to be intimidated by public opinion, at home or abroad...
...vicissitudes of American history, with its instabilities and passions, and its frequent disregard of traditional sobrieties regarding external affairs...
...They undertook treason and revolutionary war on the basis of truths they held to be self-evident, not on the basis of public applause or private polls...
...They are led into thinking that the only way to avoid the evils of pursuing 'pure duty" is to withdraw from foreign involvements...
...The election procedure at a hobo convention is that each candidate makes a speech and, after the speeches are over, the candid~ tte who receives the most applause from the crowd becomes King...
...If we want to survive and prosper without relying on the special partiality of a deity, we had better reform the philosophy which makes us susceptible to the appeal of 09u re duties...
...To moralize, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is "'to make (an event) the subject of moral reflection...
...Bismark was fascinated with the Democracy in Action~ Terry Krieger On 1~ August 1971, Mr...
...What we need is sober calculation concerning how best to honor our duty to advance our various ideals...
...The Pennsyl~,anla Kid's predecessor, (Hard Rock) Mislen, attended the convention...
...Liberalism equates a confidently held moral belief to a sin against the open mind, and we are left with an ethical doctrine which cannot distinguish between an open mind and an empty mind...
...A person who is properly "other regarding" understands that ignoring others, and allowing them to fend for themselves, is not always showing proper regard for others...
...The men who issued the Declaration of Independence did so out of decent respect for the opinions of mankind...
...We at the Saturday Evening Club congratulate the Pennsylvania Kid but regret the defeat of the progressiveminded Scissors Sam...
...It is a warning against enslavement by public opinion...
...Hence modern liberalism cannot be counted on to prevent periodic intoxication with policies supposedly embodying 9'p ure duty...
...This is serious because reckless behavior in the name of 'pure duty" may give morality a bad name -- and, in fact, it has almost done just that...
...On the contrary, often self-restraint in the interest of others" will mean a willingness to deny our desird~'not to...
...It is a precedent we should always be ready to follow...
...And it is not always possible to assume that self-restraint in the interest of others means shackling our own power...
...Bismark was actually mystified by our ability to behave as we do and survive, and he could only conclude that 'God must love drunks, babies, and the United States...
...Under the influence of modern American liberalism the nation acquired a guilty conscience about possessing firm ideas about political right and wrong...
...But the world is ,rarely that simple, and no reflective person believes that morality involves nothing but perfecting one's private life...
...This would be splendid, because we could live our lives entirely absorbed in ourselves, and we would be assured of moral purity...
Vol. 5 • November 1971 • No. 2
