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Notes Toward an American Renaissance, Starting Now
ESSAY:
Notes Toward an American Renaissance, Starting Now
Proposals on demilitarization, capitalism and corporations, work and meaning, health care, governance, and ecumenism.
by STEPHEN MILLER
Our culture is becoming distorted by a continuous jingoistic mantra confounding patriotism and the military attitude.
That passes these days for political discourse in America is in need of re-calibration with the great issues of our time and our human future. The centuries-long enlightenment project itself seems to be stumbling, and our overarching sense of human civilization and its meaning is waning, leaving the terrain to various anti-rational and fundamentalist movements, just when growing threats to human well-being need to be met with international cooperation, sober realism, and imaginative action.
It will be necessary to have in mind the long-term directions we as a society want to be moving in; without these, we will miss the larger context in which shorter-term strategies and policy adjustment decisions need to be framed. In some cases we lag behind other nations, whose experience we can draw on. In others we will have to blaze a trail; we may not expect to reach our goals immediately, but we will be moving in the right direction, making the transition as best we can.
Crowded Planet
We will be living on a more and more crowded planet. We will need to dedicate our ingenuity to the goal of living sustainably on it; we will need to make much greater cooperative efforts to preserve and sustain the rich ecology which fosters life on planet Earth. We will need to begin determinedly dis-investing ourselves from the oil economy infrastructure and shifting to alternative energy sources; we can be in the lead in development of the technologies and engineering this historic effort will bring about. We must cooperate with other nations to develop emissions-reduction strategies to avoid disastrous climate instability. We must work together to keep the oceans healthy; we must stop overfishing; we must stop dumping and pollution of the seas. Without healthy oceans, and a life-supporting atmosphere, humanity will die off.
Demilitarization
There's a saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." America's military budget is now larger than that of all other countries on the planet combined. Yet our social discourse is heavily infused with fear and insecurity. Our culture is becoming distorted by a continuous jingoistic mantra confounding patriotism and the military attitude. Our current government sees the world only in terms of threats, enemies, and subservient allies. Mounting a war has become easier than addressing shared human issues constructively. We must be prepared to rejoin the family of nations, leaving our guns at the door, for some serious cooperation to safeguard our human future. Because we have the largest arsenal, we must take the lead in seeking arms reduction worldwide, nuclear arms and other WMD, and also small arms, which kill millions today. We should not seek to militarize space as we are doing, but once again lead the world in peaceful use of space exploration and orbital earth-monitoring, for these are adventures which unite us as a species, and efforts which require our cooperation. We must also examine our proclivity for using our techno-engineering discoveries for new weapons systems, for if we don't, accelerating advances in science and engineering will bring multiplying nightmares. As JFK said, "Mankind must end war, or war will end mankind."
In the last year, the most effective use of the vast American military in terms of building peace and friendship in the world was not the occupation of Iraq, but the comparatively tiny tsunami relief effort carried out be the navy in southeast asia. We should consider progressively transforming the vast logistical powers of our military establishment to the purpose of serving humanity, thus increasing our own real security in the process.
Capitalism and Corporations
We need to examine what we as a species want from capitalism as an organizing principle in society. For example, cowboy capitalism leads to huge concentrations of wealth in a few hands, and this tendency is accelerated by information technology. A certain minimum income is needed to sustain the basic comforts of life, without which a human's growth is stunted. With the minimum, people can be free to develop in the ways they will treasure as they age, and will look upon with satisfaction when they leave this earth. Should we not be seeking a society in which everyone is able to more easily cover basic costs and needs, so they can enrich themselves in non-monetary ways, to their benefit, and to the benefit of society as a whole? Or do we subscribe to powerball capitalism—where the vast majority of people struggle to stay afloat, but a tiny micro-percentage can become fabulously wealthy? Do we have to choose between the one and the other? Does it make sense that a CEO is paid 1000 times what a teacher is paid?
We need to re-examine society's contract with the corporation. If growth and profit for shareholders, and millions for top management, are the only value corporations recognize today, this is not the case for society. From society's point of view, the value of a corporation is to give productive employment to many individuals in an organized manner, such that the individuals' share of value created is greater than he or she could have managed alone. Depending on which view you choose, for example, large-scale outsourcing looks quite different.
There has been a growing movement to privatize what had been essential civic services administered by government in a manner accountable to the people. Corporations who make such essential services their business must bear, as part of the bargain, a responsibility to meet higher standards of transparency and accountability beyond those which govern ordinary corporations in the marketplace. We cannot afford a privatization which would allow corporate secrecy and non-accountability to undermine a century's long work building that degree of confidence and credibility in our social infrastructure which we enjoy today.
Work and Meaning
We need to re-examine the issues of employment and work. There is too much misery involved in work, and too much in the lack of it. The high-consumption economy eats away at the earth and its life systems at a quickening speed—how much of this production and activity is for the good? How much would be necessary in a different, healthier society? The lifestyle and activities which come along with junior executive-style full-time employment have a far greater impact upon the earth's systems than those of an individual who has 'dropped out' by choice, and lives at minimal cost, on occasional work, growing some of their own food maybe, harvesting electricity from the sun perhaps. If we want to examine ways we can reduce the planet's 'burn rate,' shouldn't we consider options which allow and do not penalize low-impact life-styles?
We know well the value of a loving and supportive family environment to the growth of healthy individuals. Yet we have come to a place where both parents work full-time, and the children get day care, and later, XBoxes. Is this what we want in our future? Or can we imagine something different?
If we believe that an overarching value and meaning in life are to be found in self-development, learning, relationships, and spiritual growth, how are these things impacted by the work regime we now take for granted? Would working fewer hours afford more leisure time for self-improvement, thereby enriching society at large? We know well the value of a loving and supportive family environment to the growth of healthy individuals. Yet we have come to a place where both parents work full time, and the children get day care, and later, XBoxes. Is this what we want in our future? Or can we imagine something different?
Health-Care
While ranking at the bottom of western democracies in most measures, and leaving a large percentage of our population uncovered, our health care 'system' is the most expensive in the world, causing millions of personal and business bankrupcies every year, and tremendous profits to a few corporations.
We must create a rational single-payer health-care system for America. It will cost no more in the long run than what we pay now, but can be vastly more productive of good health generally than our current non-system is. We need to do this for our citizens' sake, as well as the sake of our country, for a healthier citizenry will aid us in realizing our dreams.
Further, there are new dangers to prepare for. The human species has not been kind to animals. Whatever macro-life forms we don't eat, or keep as neutered pets, we consider pests. This latter category applies even to animals we like, such as the American buffalo, when it wanders from its quarantine. Many of the few remaining 'wild' animals we still hunt traditionally. Continuing like this, we can foresee a world where the only fauna left are ourselves and our feed animals. By then, a vast diversity of microbes will have been gearing up for the assault on the human genome, or that of our livestock, after millennia happily ensconced in now-extinct species. We will be hard-pressed in America to limit outbreaks of newly emerging diseases without an affordable, unified and universal provision of health care. The other industrial democracies do this, by varying formulas which we can study and learn from. We cannot allow entrenched health-care-industry interests to prohibit us from doing this.
Education
Most young Americans today are lacking what could even remotely be described as a 'grasp of history.' Unaware of the recurring themes of the human experience, of the struggles and debates regarding society and culture, the nation and the individual, war and peace, they are prey to all manner of caricatured narratives and attitude-based judgments instead of informed thought. Without a minimal fluency in the history of the human experience, the 'citizens' democracy' will be a sham. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." And we are.
We are also falling behind other nations in critical future skills such as science and engineering. We must urgently reverse this trend—but we should also remember that the purpose of education is ultimately not to compete with the Chinese for jobs, but to lead to the enrichment of the individual's life experience and therefore also that of society and culture. The quality of education won't improve by extending the school year, or by doubling a child's homework load, but rather with better learning environments, more inspired teachers, and a hefty dose of socratic method.
Governance
We must put an end to 'the revolving door.' We must chase the moneychangers from the temple. We must do away with the jungle of lobbyists and influence peddlers that riddle our processes of governance, have made a mockery of representative democracy, and bring about policies and laws against the best interests of the public and our society. We want to be able to look back on the years of cronyism, incompetence, and partisan gangsterism which marked the early 21st century as a cautionary aberration. These abuses must be investigated and exposed so they will not happen again. We must once again hold our elected officials to the higher standard of public service, excellence in service to the common good.
After a string of dubious election results. we must fix our voting system to restore confidence in the outcome. As Joseph Stalin said, "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything."
If we wish to play a leading role in the world to come, we can no longer afford to see our house of government staffed with anything less than the best and the brightest we as a country can offer. We must lead American discourse away from the spasm of small-town xenophobia which set in after 9/11, toward a respect for other nations, other peoples, and international cooperation, if we want to be a player in the future, and not an obstructive bystander.
Ecumenism
All human cultures have spiritual traditions, saints, and an understanding of The Good. The wisdom which has been discovered through Buddhist practice, in Taoism, in Christianity, in Islam, in the Vedic traditions, is wisdom for us all. These are part of our human heritage. True spirituality cannot be based on denigration of other paths, but rather recognizes that all paths 'lead to God.' Therefore a respect for and interest in other traditions is proper; it is also necessary for a nation which would be a respected leader among the community of nations.
Stephen Miller writes from Santa Fe, NM. He may be reached at Dvmx.com.
