If we wish to live in a just and well-ordered society, we will be concerned with the principles that guide participation and define responsibility. Political philosophy is a paramount concern for many people, but if truth be told, it is actually the ethical consensus embodied in human behavior and in law that secures order and forms the character of a society. Freedom and justice are of particular importance in American life, yet with interrelated and subjective meanings that often go unexamined. Neither can be fully understood without the rational considerations discussed in Chapter Nine.
In this chapter we will examine the significance of values and ethical principles in the well-being of society. How can we live with the moral integrity that a civilized order depends on? I expect the thoughtful reader will recognize the essential role of ethics in ensuring safety and fairness in the social order, as well as in a personal life well-lived. However, the issues raised in the process of ethical living are complex and personal. We cannot afford to engage in serious relationships while unprepared for the possibility of ethical questions.
Readers will notice that I use the terms ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ interchangeably. Many of us attach different meanings to the two words. Morality is often thought of as embodied in a system and associated with an institution or cultural practice. Ethics tend to be thought of and rationalized as an individual concern. In my view, these are the same word represented in two languages, Latin and Greek. I understand that most of us have customary ways of thinking about them. But in the interest of communicating clearly, I have chosen to sidestep intellectual formulations. I am in the practice of referring to the concepts of ‘moral integrity’ and ‘moral responsibility’ as such because they involve the dynamic order implicit in human relationships. However, you will generally find me referring to ethics and morality with their meanings provided by the context in which they are used.
Semantics aside, it is in our interest to identify the principles we will need to bring us through the long crisis ahead. The addictive nature of moral degradation is of particular concern, as its growing influence subverts economic stability, social order, and mental health. We are all challenged increasingly as the social and economic conditions around us deteriorate.
As the reader is surely now aware, I believe the role of community to be of essential significance in a free society. I hope the reasons for this were outlined with sufficient clarity in the previous chapter. In the dark days ahead, functional communities will become increasingly important as the sole source of safety and order in a society that is coming apart. It is for this reason that the purpose and functioning of vibrant community life is the focus of this book.
This may seem idealistic to some and to others simply out of reach. It is my intention to clarify why we have no choice but to live responsibly—and to outline the attitude, practical thinking and learned skills this requires. And, in considering the concept of ethical integrity, we are immediately confronted with the problematic attitude toward virtue we experience in today’s world.
“The word ‘virtue’,” Bernard Williams wrote in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, “has for the most part acquired comic or otherwise undesirable associations, and few now use it except philosophers, but there is no other word that serves as well, and it has to be used in moral philosophy. One might hope that, with its proper meaning reestablished, it will come back into respectable use. In that proper use, meaning an ethically admirable disposition of character, it covers a broad class of characteristics, and, as so often in these subjects, the boundary of that class is not sharp and does not need to be made sharp.”[i]
One has to wonder if there is any concern about virtue at all in today’s world. Why should we be concerned? An honest answer to this question might be to suggest we consider the origins of our present circumstances. In light of recent history, the regeneration of respect for moral values would, I suggest, be the only responsible answer to a nation and society dominated by deception and distrust, and their inevitable consequences.
One might reasonably argue that this is a global problem and not limited to the United States. As Americans, however, we have particular reason to take notice. Please bear with me. Many of you share my view that the future of this American Republic depends, first and foremost, on the bulwark of stability that is the United States Constitution. The Constitution provides a uniquely unrestrictive governing structure. It depends quite literally on the expectations the Founders had of the integrity and character of future Americans. Their contract with us was an act of faith, an expression of the belief that Americans could be entrusted with the future.
This is not a theoretical interpretation of their motives. The expectation was expressed explicitly.
“Everyone involved in the creation of the United States,” writes Charles Murray, “knew that its success depended on virtue in its citizenry – not gentility, but virtue.” James Madison was explicit: “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical [wildly fanciful] idea.”
Patrick Henry was equally forceful: “No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.” And, in his farewell address George Washington famously said: “Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”
These words of wisdom are quoted in Charles Murray’s book, Coming Apart. “In their various ways”, he comments, “the founders recognized that if a society is to remain free, self-government refers first of all to individual citizens governing their own behavior.”[ii]
These warnings confront us today as we peer into the waiting abyss of a corrupt and duplicitous future. Will we stop to consider why the founders knew that liberty depends on virtue, and, indeed, what liberty actually meant to them?
In America, accountability falls to ourselves. And it is here that our discussion of first principles begins.
Living virtuous lives is not simply about loving what is good, as important as that is. Virtue protects us from violating the order of existence. It has been said that ‘prudence’, which is known as one of the four ‘cardinal virtues’, is actually a principle embodied by all virtues. Why? Because the virtues allow us a state of being that is congruent with true order. That is to say, it is prudent to avoid disorder.
As I argued in Chapter Nine, this is order which cannot be reinvented or manipulated by human reasoning. It is the original underlying order that is our birthright and true reality. The virtues reflect the maturity of ones’ character when fully engaged with the reality which is not imagined, but given. This is not something that can happen piecemeal. As reality is necessarily coherent and unified, so also the virtues are mutually dependent and inseparable. The practicality of this truth was articulated by Augustine nearly 1600 years ago. And, like all immutable truth, it cannot change.[iii]
Personal accountability can be practiced in any relationship, yet it is only in the context of community that accountability can be fully tested. It is here that the integrity of trustworthy relationships cannot be escaped. Truthfulness and dependability are immediately recognized in the sustained interpersonal engagement that make authentic community what it is. Accountability is also important in the workplace, but there we often have room to stretch the truth or to seek personal advantage. In community there is far less “wiggle-room” than in most organizations or places of employment, and there is no escape from the integrity expected of intimate, interdependent relationships. Honest relationships can be hard work, but when the going gets tough relationships count.
I don’t just mean engaging with our next-door neighbors, as essential as this is. If we find ourselves under threat, directly or indirectly, the last thing we need are neighbors down the road or over the hill who are an unknown quantity. And, we are not simply concerned about making acquaintances here. This is not about borrowing a cup of sugar over the back fence. To make our communities safe and to rebuild the nation we need dependability. And that means friendship and trust.
Building trust is not something that Americans know much about. Many of us do not live or work in circumstances where it is a pressing concern. I must remind you, however, that social stability, justice, and effective governance all depend on trust. Without this assurance, liberty and justice will remain elusive and the fabric of this nation will continue to unravel. Trust is the substance of integrity. It is essential for building a future we can believe in.
It is not hard to see that the virtues identified by the American Founders are a necessary prerequisite to trust. Without truthfulness and dependability trust is inconceivable—in our families, communities, or workplaces. Without these essential virtues, values are meaningless.
Freedom’s Virtue
While the virtues emphasized by the American Founders are easily recognized as essential in a free society, there is a special value in which all are joined and knit together. This is the concept of responsibility. The close relationship between freedom and responsibility has often been noted, but is rarely discussed among Americans today. Responsibility can be understood in two ways. In law and in the social sciences, responsibility is usually considered a matter of perceived credit or blame to be placed on persons or institutions for something that has taken place. However, the responsibility required by freedom involves the future rather than the past.
In our families and communities, and our place in society as a whole, we have responsibility for taking action—for doing something. One dictionary defines this responsibility as “a moral duty to behave in a particular way.”[iv] If it is, indeed, a “moral duty”, this is because the safety and dependability of our circumstances requires it. And, it is this responsibility that determines the life we wish to live and seeks to create the kind of society we wish to live in.
Responsibility becomes a virtue when it takes form in constructive action. To be realized in action, responsibility requires knowledge, awareness, and a readiness to respond. It might be helpful, then, to understand responsibility as a compound word: ‘response-ability’.
Most of us understand what responsibility means in our personal lives, whether or not we make it real. And, most Americans know that freedom cannot exist without responsibility. But what does this mean for us—ultimately? Clearly, nothing will change while we wait for other people to accept responsibility for something—anything. Responsibility is personal and self-defining. A “readiness to respond” is the commitment and ability to take initiative. And so, I have called it “freedom’s virtue”.
However, taking responsibility for freedom is not as simple as it might seem. There are two primary reasons for this. First, our ability to accurately recognize the full reality of our circumstances will always be limited by our perceptions, as well as our knowledge of context—both past and present. Have we, for example, accepted the personal responsibility for the independent investigation of truth? How did things come to be as they are? How are other people influencing our perceptions, and can we trust their truthfulness and or motives? How might our actions impact the needs or interests of other people—which is to say, innocent bystanders?
In Chapter Nine we considered the discipline required as we navigate the subtle boundaries of freedom and responsibility. This is not easy. The ethical questions and complexities we face when engaging with today’s world cannot be exaggerated. It is for this reason that living in a dependable community, where constructive dialogue is supportive and respectful, is so valuable. It is by means of varied inputs that we allow ourselves the good judgment we are all capable of.
Responsibility for freedom is far more than a theory and ultimate goal. We are responsible for managing the means for creating it. It is the means employed, the character of constructive action, and the qualities of attitude and spirit that determine results. In Chapter 17, I will focus on responsibility and its conditions in greater detail.
The Foundations of Community
If we seek a free society and a civilized future, it is in our interests to create an environment where dialogue and trust are encouraged and brought to life. Values are invariably plural, and we need to accept this. Courage is needed to negotiate acceptable working relationships. It will be necessary for each local community to negotiate an agreeable system of ethical principles and behavioral expectations that support a safe, positive environment. Yes, we are talking about consensual rules here. This cannot be created overnight, but it must be initiated purposefully and with full participation. And it must then be sustained as an evolving system acceptable to everyone.
Communities need to “own” these agreements; they cannot be imposed from outside or adapted from a book. We do not need necessarily to share identical values to honor and respect the comfort of our neighbors. If we wish to create a safe, well-organized community, we will respect the reality of human feelings. Negotiating this will be neither quick or simple. But it can be advanced in small steps when we are committed to building trust and laying a foundation in justice.
Where do we start? We have to be realistic. Only a rational prudence can guide us.
Agreement on a commonly accepted catalog of virtues in a world where generally accepted rules of behavior have ceased to exist, will not be possible. Cultural integrity has degraded to the point where traditions have fragmented or collapsed. Needless to say, things have not always been this way. The philosophical heritage of the western tradition in which the United States was founded, was influenced by two intertwined forces: the Greek philosophy of antiquity, especially that of Aristotle, and by the Christian tradition grounded in the theology of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. This heritage came unglued during the intellectual ferment of the European Enlightenment and what followed.
In stark contrast to Greek philosophy, Alasdair MacIntyre has observed, our lives are dominated today by an intransigent egoist attitude. He writes: “For what [an Aristotelian] education in the virtues teaches me is that my good as a man is one and the same as the good for those others with whom I am bound up in human community. There is no way of my pursuing my good which is necessarily antagonistic to you pursuing yours because the good is neither mine peculiarly nor yours peculiarly—goods are not private property. Hence Aristotle’s definition of friendship, the fundamental form of human relationship, is in terms of shared goods. The egoist is thus, in the ancient and medieval world, always someone who has made a fundamental mistake about where his own good lies and someone who has thus and to that extent excluded himself from human relationships.”[v]
Unfortunately, we have strayed far from this ideal. By the 18th century, Enlightenment thinking assumed that each individual by nature seeks satisfaction of his or her own desires alone. Consequently, we have inherited a society overwhelmed by fragmentation. When egoistic motivations dominate in society, MacIntyre comments, “there are at least strong reasons for supposing that a mutually destructive anarchy will ensue, unless desires are limited by a more intelligent version of egoism.”[vi]
What is to be done? A constructive attitude understands the need to be realistic about ones’ current reality and constraints, even while maintaining some form of moral rectitude.
It is my position that we can best pursue our own interests with an orientation focused on felt-needs, including, for example, such things as neighborhood safety, food security, and mutual assistance. The extremes of approaching crises will threaten basic security and might even threaten physical survival. This will open the minds of most people to realign their priorities. Such conditions will create opportunities to re-examine our personal assumptions about other people and clear our thinking about practical cooperation. And this will, in turn, encourage the shedding of habitual perceptions in favor of a truth we can only experience in active working relationships.
While the expectations of the American Founders send us a principled warning, the reality we face in America today is vastly more complex and fraught with anxiety than earlier generations could have imagined. However, the challenges that confront us invite mature thinking and a responsible attitude. Morality and order are not the products of abstract rules. They must be appropriate, practical, and fully understood. Likewise, values cannot be exemplified by society as a whole, except to the extent communities and institutions reflect the implicit standards of moral integrity embodied in the expectations of citizens. Values live and mature in the human heart. Moral integrity depends on personal judgment, commitment and responsibility.
How does this happen in a civilized society? The answer is not mysterious. Active working relationships create mutual bonds and encourage commitment to principles that support both individual and community interests. Fellowship among fully engaged people leads to the understanding and communication needed to promote comfort and the maintenance of order. In the next chapter I will address the nature of authentic interpersonal relationships in more detail, but here we will focus on ‘value pluralism’ and ‘virtue ethics’, which will need to be integrated in a satisfactory manner if a community is to establish its own functional order.
A coherent social order is found where there is a commitment to ethical precepts in which action is its own reward. When we are living in authentic community, endeavoring to ensure safety and to meet local needs in a dangerous world, this will matter. It will be necessary to manage our differences with patient equanimity. While perhaps avoiding insistence on too rigid a list of strict moral values, we are never-the-less challenged to facilitate comfortable working relationships and to avoid interpersonal offense. Mutual acceptance will need to gradually mature. This means respecting the values and moral sensibilities of our neighbors, which, in turn, requires open and honest communication—and generosity of spirit.
Navigating Value Pluralism
As I have said, adjusting to therealities of the human condition does not require that we compromise our personal values. We are who we are. Still, authentic community calls for an inquisitive interest in one another and a compassionate attitude. The disappointments, hardship and pain experienced by others have, like our own, influenced their beliefs and perspective. Pain is pain, and like ourselves, they are who they are.
Do we have the courage and grace to support freedom for those who differ from us? We are not confronted with an impossible challenge. Let’s try to understand the reality of justice in a plural society.
“The view that there exist objective moral or social values, eternal and universal, untouched by historical change, and accessible to the mind of any rational man if only he chooses to direct his gaze at them, is,” in the words of Isaiah Berlin, “open to every sort of question. Yet the possibility of understanding men in one’s own or any other time, indeed of communication between human beings, depends upon the existence of some common values, and not on a common ‘factual’ world alone. The latter is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of social intercourse. Those who are out of touch with the external world are described as abnormal or, in extreme cases, insane. But so also—and this is the point—are those who wander too far from the common public world of values.”[vii]
Needless to say, finding common ground will be essential in authentic community. Values determine how people relate to each other. Values take form in ethical principles or assumptions that can sometimes be so ingrained in personality that we don’t think much about them. It may not be apparent that we live in a world where value pluralism is an inevitable reality. None of us share one another’s values fully, and often we fail to realize this. Values support belief systems and our way of understanding the world, and they can easily come into conflict, even within families or close friendships. It is actually quite possible for two of our own personal values to conflict with each other. These are among the ethical dilemmas that force us to think, grow and mature as individuals. And, this is another reason why open communication will always be valuable.
Normally, values provide guidance and stability, and a lens through which we understand our place in the world. They are not free-floating, self-generating illusions. Values gain reality only in being actively lived. And human beings can only live, grow, and be creative in relationships with other human beings. Surely, wisdom suggests we allow one another the freedom to live and work with values that differ from our own. And just as surely, we would do well to avoid inflicting our values on one another. To seek common ground is first to grant one another acceptance as autonomous, self-governing individuals.
In a future where most of us are empowered and productive, we will have learned to accept and benefit from a natural diversity of values. Such differences might appear minor, but the contribution of diverse perspectives is essential in maximizing the effectiveness of problem-solving (see Chapter 3, Finding Our Strength). However, most of us have little or no experience in which the diversity of values is recognized or appreciated. With the world in crisis, we are now experiencing social and economic dislocation and anxiety in which personal values can be challenged and assumptions disrupted.
Our circumstances, our society, our ways of engaging with other people, have all been changing. For nearly two centuries our friends, our interests, our way of thinking, were determined to a significant extent by our ethnicity (race), or our financial means, or the nature of our employment. We understood and felt most at home with those we lived and worked with. Society has been organized along the lines of what came to be known as “the division of labor”, which influenced social consciousness and perspective perhaps more than many Americans realize. This consciousness has been breaking down for quite some time, exacerbated by the domination of large corporations, the incoherence of mass media, and the rapidly growing number of citizens with a secondary or post-secondary education. The fragmentation first felt by earlier generations is now clearly apparent in the alienation and defensiveness felt by groups that perceive themselves as mistreated, abandoned or left behind.
When massive numbers of jobs suddenly vanished overseas, the sudden destruction of the manufacturing economy dropped millions of stunned Americans unceremoniously from the middle class. Large numbers of Americans have found themselves dislocated or set-apart by numerous practical disparities. Subsequently, Americans often feel left behind, alienated, defensive and suspicious.
Whatever the details of personal politics and perceptions, a substantial portion of the American people are quite aware of the destruction brought to their lives by a financial elite that has ignored and abandoned them. They are equally aware—every day—of the degraded emptiness of low-paying and meaningless jobs bequeathed upon them by economic myopia. It is a crisis that promises to spread and deepen with the ascendancy of automation and robotics in the coming decades. It is true that practical solutions are available, involving training and capacity development. But this has received little attention in the public sphere at the time of this writing.
Another factor should not be ignored. Millions of lives have been effectively dominated by social isolation since the advent of television. This did not begin with a pandemic in 2020. Several generations of Americans had been spending long hours in front of the television every day. Social media added a rudimentary interactive element, but also the opportunity for manipulation, falsehood and dishonesty. When we feel depressed or degraded, we need to understand how we came to be seduced by such influences. But, let’s be perfectly clear: As a dominant way of life mass media is mentally, culturally, and morally deadening. And, we are doing this to ourselves.
This is what we are living with today, and a reality in which authentic community must free itself. How will we remake and rebuild productive lives, economically and otherwise, where there are deeply felt grievances and severely limited horizons? How can we build truly sensitive and supportive relationships to create productive communities? We are unique individuals with differing views, personalities, experience, and wishes. Recognizing inevitable differences and feelings of inadequacy, we will have to engage in a learning process with curiosity, sensitivity, and, most of all, courage.
The Foundation of Truthfulness
Which values and virtues need we agree on? All virtues are actually prudent as a practical matter, as I have explained. But human beings have never agreed on a common catalog of values. These underpinnings of social integrity have differed among cultures, faith traditions, and periods of history. So, the question of what we need today is significant. If we are to construct a stable, prosperous, and pleasant future—what need we agree on? This is your call, but I will offer some suggestions here.
First and foremost, I believe it self-evident that everything depends on truthfulness. This is the foundation of all values and virtues. Without truthfulness there can be no assurance, no dependability, no trust.
I submit further that we accept the values and virtues identified by the Founders, as reported above. And I propose that the following be accepted as non-negotiable: Truthfulness, trustworthiness, dependability, fairness, patience, tolerance, public decency, and respect for personal dignity, privacy, and the inviolable integrity of marital unions.
None of us will ever be perfect, and yet all these depend on relative consistency. Unfortunately, consistency can sometimes be influenced by circumstances that are beyond our control. Which is one of the reasons why flexibility, forgiveness, and dialogue are important.
What is the bottom line? Virtues reflect the structure and integrity of justice. And justice, as defined in Chapter Nine, is the ground in which virtues are embedded. It is for this reason that prudence is the underlying purpose of every virtue, and truthfulness is the most important.
General recognition that citizen responsibility and a just ethical order are the primary requirements of a free and civilized future, will determine whether there is hope for the future. This learning will mature gradually, but is the first order of business. There is no alternative.
Every injustice and every failure of responsibility will corrupt good order. In other words, corruption involves far more than simple misbehavior. Indeed, anything that corrupts the integrity of the whole will resist our efforts and success. As responsible adults, whatever our values and opinions, we will avoid contributing to disunity and disorder.
All forms of corruption lead to disintegration and decay—in nature, in societies, and in the human soul. This truth has been recognized and taught by wisdom traditions for thousands of years. We can also recognize it naturally, intuitively, if we clear our minds of the corrupting influences and illusory assumptions that a materialist, self-centered culture has filled us with.
We sometimes encounter resistance within ourselves as we endeavor to understand and apply specific virtues in practical life. This is can be expected. It implies no fault on our part. And yet, each is responsible for moving beyond the discomfort—rationally, intelligently, because integrity matters to us.
The distinction between knowledge and belief is often unclear. We have to work these things out for ourselves. What is important is that we seek consciously to develop those qualities of character we wish to assimilate and internalize. And this cannot happen in isolation. It is only with active interpersonal engagement that understanding can grow and self-discipline be applied. We depend on feedback from our friends and the community around us. But as a free people we also need to see with our own eyes and not through the eyes of others. Our search for truth must be entirely independent. And surely we can make every effort to be gentle with one another as we all learn and grow.
Americans are taking on a monumental task and we cannot afford to delay. Compassion and integrity are as important today as they will be in the future. This is fundamental to the well-being of our families, our communities, and the nation.
I have left politicized issues off the table because Americans will, with authentic dialogue, resolve issues with reason, compassion, and commit to a future we can believe in. Throughout human history community has been the foundation of civil order, an institution that survives crises and transcends politics—the means for security and well-being throughout centuries of disruptions, cataclysms and suffering. Whatever the causes of destruction, we can always turn to community by learning the needed skills and determining to make them work. If we need to begin again, let it be at home—and from a position of strength, built from trustworthiness and self-sufficiency.
Making America strong will not be possible with a negative attitude or conflicted emotions. Nor will we find our way with compromised virtues. Once we accept the idea that community will be the foundation of a civilized future, that it provides the basis for civil order and moral integrity, we will gradually come to understand the principles, responsibilities, and patience this requires.
“Knowing that we have responsibility for the consequences of our actions,” writes Charles Murray, “is a major part of what makes life worth living.”
[i] Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Harvard Univ. Press (1985), p. 9.
[ii] Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, Crown Forum, Random House (2012), pp. 132-133.
[iii] See Étienne Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine, Random House (1960), Cluny Media edition (2020), pp. 193-194.
[iv] Macmillan Dictionary Online, Macmillan Education Limited (2009–2021).
[v] Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (3rd edition), Univ. of Notre Dame Press (1981, 2007), p. 229.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Isaiah Berlin, Liberty: Four Essays (Introduction), Oxford Univ. Press (1969), p. 24.
[viii] Charles Murray, op. cit., p. 285.