Relative Human Worth & "Compassionate"
Conservatism
Dr. Gerry Lower, Keystone, South Dakota published
in OpEdNews.Com 6/12/2003
Michael Kinsley (Tyranny of the Rich, MSNBC, June 06, 2003) has recently
legitimized open discussion of class warfare in America, and the
historical context for this western millennial trait has been discussed
with regard to it’s relationships to fundamentalist western religion
(Class Warfare Against the Poor, CounterPunch, Jan. 30, 2003). Rather than
blame Michael Kinsley for his poor grasp of political correctness, we
might also consider addressing the actual issue.
By all right wing gods, we certainly do have an awkward time in America
with the notions of human greed and human fairness. The rich are entirely
unable to define or recognize greed. The poor, as a result, seldom
experience fairness. Rather than having fairness as a bottom line, it has
become the reciprocal of greed (greed up, fairness down). As the driving
force of capitalism, greed has been increasingly in dominion since World
War II, maxing out with the current Bush administration.
Here we are, a nation birthed from the concepts of fairness and equality,
and we have recently produced the largest gap between the rich and poor in
the history of the human race. The fact that the religious right wing
accepts this as the proper norm for the entire world is really all the
proof needed that the religious right has never been able to grasp the
concepts of fairness and equality. Given our purported American role of
nourishing Democracy at home and abroad, this outcome ought really be
explained to the American citizens so that they might better appreciate
the job their government is doing for them in the name of fairness.
In sorry truth, our American grasp of human fairness and equality is right
up there with our grasp of human sexuality, not having a clue what that is
about either. We are, as a nation, rather obsessed lately with the
adolescent notion that penile size matters in sex (yes, "you have
mail"). Never mind Whoopi Goldberg’s sage advice to men, that they
ought stick their tongues through the hole in a LifeSaver™ and thats
"all I wanna see." Viagra™, likewise, will never make much of
an impact among the lesbian set. Somehow over the past few millennia, men
have simply missed the self-evident fact that the primary sensual
apparatus on the female body is situated externally. Somehow over the past
few millennia, men have simply missed the simple truth that if you are not
making love with the entire woman, body, mind and soul, then you simply
ain’t all the way in anyway. Beneath this "American" view, my
friends, is mythology, ignorance beyond empirical and experiential
comprehension. Men have simply not gotten the message, have they?
We are, likewise, rather obsessed lately with the pathetic notion that
"greed is good," that greed is central to the nourishment of
democracy in America. Never mind Kenneth Lay and American dominion by
corrupt middlemen who create or produce nothing themselves. Never mind
eating up the poor to eke a little more money out for the rich. Somehow
over the past two millennia, the right wing has missed the self-evident
fact that the primary causes of unfairness and inequality in the world are
greed and self-righteousness. Somehow over the past few millennia, the
right wing has missed the self-evident fact that "Labor is prior to,
and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could
not have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of
capital, and deserves much the higher consideration" (Lincoln).
Beneath this right view, my friends, is mythology, ignorance beyond
empirical and experiential comprehension." The right wing have simply
not gotten the message, have they?
Consider the various contributors to America, for better or worse. On the
one hand, we have had leadership in America which took us in the direction
of fairness and equality in the interest of the values of nascent
Christianity and Democracy, e.g., Jefferson and Lincoln. On the other
hand, we have had "leadership" in America which has taken us in
the direction of unfairness and inequality in the name of the values of
Republican crony capitalism and "compassionate" conservatism,
e.g., Bush and Cheney. Between these extremes, we can consider the concept
of relative human worth. That range embraces everything from human genius
to human criminality, from knowledgeable creativity to ignorant
destruction, from human healers to human hucksters.
The majority of us live in between these extremes, aspiring to be neither
saints or sinners, being kindly one day and maybe not so kindly the next,
just trying to survive the unfairness of a harshly competitive, mindless
socioeconomic system. We mostly just vacillate between acceptance and
judgement, indifference and outrage. It is the few at the extremes who
provide our saints and our sinners, either by encouraging us to think for
ourselves, or by encouraging us to allow others ("them") to
think for us, respectively. Speaking directly to this dichotomy in
leadership, Jefferson put it this way in a letter to DuPont de Nemours,
"We both consider the people as our children, and love them with
parental affection. But you love them as infants whom you are afraid to
trust without nurses; and I as adults to whom I freely leave to
self-government."
With the right wing Republican takeover of American government, capitalism
has come to transcend the traditional western dialectic between liberal
(empiricist, New Testament) and conservative (transcendentalist, Old
Testament) viewpoints, replacing traditional notions of relative human
worth with notions of personal net worth. We have become a nation in which
everything revolves around money, decidedly in service to mammon (common
knowledge here, people. Deal with it).
Without money, you are no one, you are nothing, you have no
"rights." The concept of personal character hasn't been
recognized by American financial institutions for decades. Even with an
income of $200,000 per annum, you are next to nothing under
"influence-for-a-fee" crony capitalism. You simply do not have
adequate means to be a viable contributor to the right wing political
agenda. You do not have enough chips to gamble at the crony capitalist
table.
Employing a purely fiscal approach to relative human worth, Bush’s
self-enabled tax break for 2003 will be the equivalent of what can be
earned by working full time at $20 per hour, a tax savings for Bush more
than most Americans can even earn by working. Not bad for a man who is so
self-evidently challenged in the intellectual, moral and spiritual realms.
Bush is pretty special. Cheney’s tax break for 2003 will be the
equivalent of what can be earned by working full time at $150 per hour,
more than the average physician can make by working. Cheney is enormously
special.
And that IS the problem. Cheney is just too special for human belief, but
that doesn’t matter to the self-righteous who question not how they
became so special. They embrace only the notion that they are special, by
the grace of their god. Downplaying every notion of meritocracy is
essential to this embrace.
There simply is no empirical or logical basis for taking personal fiscal
worth as any criterion at all for evaluating relative human worth. Even
the first Christian, the abused and ignored savior of right wing religion,
died penniless. Even Jefferson accomplished perfection in leaving this
life with pretty much what he had when he entered it, abiding by the
self-evident notion that "you can't take it with you," and
failing to abide by the notion that his offspring were so remarkably
blessed that they ought not have to contribute for a livelihood.
The only rationale for using money as a measure of human worth comes from
the traditional right wing religious notion that personal wealth is an
indication of heavenly favoritism which, in turn, provides justification
for self-righteousness and belligerence in one’s own name and interest.
Accordingly, any growing gap between the rich and poor is necessarily seen
as god’s will, never-mind the will of the people.
This approach to self-justification is the practical equivalent of
psychosis insofar as it is a refutation of empirical reality, a refutation
of human reason and a denial of human history. As Saint Bernard pointed
out, "No more vain than insane." This religious effort to be
"right" for the sake of being "right" is
characteristic of fanatical and criminal thought, characteristic of
fundamentalist religious thought regardless of brand name (William
Raspberry, Uncontested Zealotry give GOP an Edge, Seattle Times, June 3,
2003). This approach is necessarily devoid of reason because it sees
"special" people as being worth literally hundreds and thousands
times more than a minimum wage worker. This all makes perfectly good sense
to the self-righteous religious right wing.
To Jefferson, this was utter nonsense. The members of his American
Philosophical Society covered the range from established scientists and
physicians to creative craftsmen and naturalist farmers. To Jefferson, it
was not whom you knew but what you knew that made you human and worthy of
being a citizen in America. Indeed, the evidence would have it that
America's intellectual fathers were rather modest men, hoping to convince
with logic rather than spin. Jefferson's tombstone does not even mention
that he was president.
Is getting an honest, realistic handle on the concepts of fairness and
meritocracy just too tough for right wing comprehension? If so, we are
going to have to dump them from the political scene, no other option in a
world needing a little fairness. But not to worry, as the right wing seems
to be doing everything possible to ensure that end on their own. "The
people who should worry most about the credibility gap are those who
support Bush's foreign policy (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Spinning Away Trust,
Washington Post, June 6, 2003)."
Democracy, my friends, is built on trust, trust in human rights and trust
in our fellow humans. Human rights transcend a posteriori religious law
looking for someone to punish. The most important laws in a democracy are
a priori laws designed to prevent people from falling through tears in the
social fabric (remember the 60s?). The only absolute law in a true
democracy is the law that you must think for yourself and make your own
decisions. Everything else follows from that one law in a government of,
by and for the people.
Dr. Gerry Lower
lives in Keystone, South Dakota. He can be reached at: tisland@enetis.net
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