Who is responsible?
Cassidy, Kevin J.
Applying the pastoral WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? BRINGING THE LIGHT TO G.E. A GREAT DEAL has been written in the past year and a half about the peace pastoral of the Catholic bishops. It has weathered...
...a theology instructor outlined the teachings of the churches on the issue...
...The bishops' approach is not a new one...
...His colleagues nodded in agreement...
...According to the GE executives neither they nor their company feels responsibility for the policies that these first-strike weapons might serve...
...They appreciate and accept such diversity as the result of individual Commonweal: 296 moral autonomy...
...That, at least, is the highly plausible interpretation of the pastoral that the "Good Things Committee" has tried to translate into a message to GE, frequently standing in vigil at the entrance to the company's corporate headquarters...
...Indeed, they seemed to insist on not doing so...
...a physician described the impossible medical consequences of a nuclear conflict...
...Producing these new weapons will escalate the arms race and create still another obstacle to nuclear disarmament which is the bishops' ultimate goal...
...None was forthcoming...
...But they insist that there is a moral judgment to be made by individuals in the defense industry and nuclear weapons production...
...Lest the demonstrators form a negative impression of the corporation, GE always sends out two executives to greet the group and assure them — as well as the local media present — that GE is committed to peace...
...To hear the company's representatives explain it, building bombs is somehow just as peaceful an activity as standing in vigil against building bombs...
...Are they bringing its principles to bear on American institutions and policy-makers...
...One group of Connecticut Catholics has taken the pastoral to heart — and to the corporate headquarters of the General Electric Company in suburban Fairfield County...
...To my mind, each had clearly ceded that part of himself and his organization to the government, and believed strongly in doing so...
...The question remains as to its impact...
...These are middle-class, professional people who are otherwise indistinguishable from their Fairfield County neighbors...
...We just differ on the means, and that's what democracy's all about...
...The bishops might have hard questions about the connection between peace and the new weapons, but apparently these executives do not...
...The bishops are unwilling to accept such a threat to deterrence because it destabilizes the relationship between the two superpowers...
...They felt no ready need to use their own moral criteria in thinking about the weapons systems their company was making...
...Throughout the conversation the GE representatives emphasized that they were religious people, practicing members of their churches and concerned about moral values...
...Yet, they apparently would not consider any connection between those personal values and the weapons work of their firm...
...The response was disquieting: we're not responsible because it's the government that asks us to do this...
...What would you do," he asked, "if you were requested to construct structures like that for the government...
...Has it penetrated the consciousness of Catholics...
...KEVIN J. CASSIDY (Kevin J. Cassidy is assistant professor of politics at Fair-field University, Fairfield, Connecticut...
...It is the kind of thinking which permits holocausts for which no one is responsible...
...It doesn't fit the pattern of suburban Catholic life...
...That's hypothetical...
...It's not the duty of the company to consider the government's policy, said the GE group...
...Not one explained in his own religious or moral categories why GE's weapons production was appropriate...
...Now the fourth-ranking weapons manufacturer in the country, GE makes parts for the MX, Trident II missiles, the B-l bomber, the Trident submarine, and a host of other weapons including the Mark 21 re-entry vehicle for nuclear warheads...
...Responsibility rests only in Washington...
...The bishops recognize mat different choices might be made in answering the question of participating in weapons production...
...In frustration, the physician pointed out that some firm had made the gas ovens for Hitler...
...The bishops see it very differently...
...The paragraph refers frequently to the need to make a choice, to form one's conscience to make a personal judgment...
...Those involved in its production "face specific questions because the defense industry is directly involved in the development and production of the weapons of mass destruction...
...Calling themselves the "Good Things Committee," a play on the GE jingle about bringing "good things to life," the group is protesting GE's extensive involvement in nuclear weapons production...
...Indeed, one company representative repeated that it would be wrong for the company to deny its expertise to the government...
...What would your response be?'' The answer of one General Electric executive was simply this: "We'd have to go back to the company for further guidance on that...
...The committee numbers about sixty-five persons and few of them have ever picketed or demonstrated before...
...As Daniel Berrigan has said, "When the button is finally pushed it will be a legal act...
...Near the end of the peace pastoral (paragraph 318) they address themselves specifically to "men and women in defense industries...
...After all, said the GE emissaries, "we want the same thing you do...
...said a GE vice-president who seemed especially upset with the question...
...With signs and banners they stand quietly in front of GE sharing with each other a common feeling: "I can't believe I'm really here doing this...
...The extraordinary accuracy of the MX and Trident II allows them to be aimed at Soviet missile sites in what is called counterforce strategy...
...It was pointed out that the MX and the other weapons were not hypothetical and deserved a judgment by the company...
...What is the moral position of GE...
...the executives were asked...
...and the author, a political scientist, detailed the strategic objections to the MX and the Trident II...
...This policy threatens the Soviet Union's retaliatory capacity and, in so doing, undermines deterrence...
...17 May 1985: 297...
...The reason, the bishops argue, is the nature of such weaponry...
...That fact requires moral choice, a choice that the General Electric representatives must not refuse to recognize...
...17 May 1985: 295 When the demonstrators and the reporters did not succumb to die public relations approach, the corporation agreed to a meeting inside its headquarters where representatives of the Good Things Committee were invited to present their position directly to company executives...
...It has weathered criticism from both the right and left, yet stands as a thoughtful, realistic assessment of the nuclear arms race from the perspective of Catholic teaching...
...It was the Nuremberg defense revisited: we are not responsible because the government asked us to do it...
...Would there ever be a time when GE would refuse a request by the government...
...The focus, however, was on the moral issue: given the biological, medical, and strategic consequences of first-strike weapons, how does the company justify their production...
...The GE executives attempted to lift that responsibility from the person and place it on impersonal government bureaucracy...
...We don't deal in hypotheticals...
...Four members of the committee argued the case against GE's weapons from separate perspectives: a biologist explained the "nuclear winter" syndrome — the fact that even a very limited nuclear exchange would create disastrous ecological conditions...
...The group also pointed out to company executives that, with a growing public awareness of the arms race, GE's weapons could create a serious public relations problem for the company...
...Not one assumed moral responsibility, either for himself or for the corporation...
...GE would build whatever weapons Washington requested, provided they were economically and technologically feasible for the firm...
...it is basic to the Judaeo-Christian tradition which makes the individual ultimately responsible for his or her actions...
...But most have come to a knowledge of the arms race through programs on the pastoral in their parish churches...
Vol. 112 • May 1985 • No. 10
