No More Good Will

Barack Obama came to the presidency of the U. S. not so much as the next liberal president or the next reforming president but as the “good will” president. His invitation to “good will” cooperation is ending as badly as possible. With his inability to find a “good will” purchase point from which to lever improvements in American society and culture, we may be seeing the end of the worthwhile remnants of American democracy.

This is not to say that “democracy” has been the most important thing to Americans in their short past, despite their wish to have-their-cake-and-eat-it-too by basking in the moral glow associated with democracy. Americans have always been more advocates of “freedom” than democracy (“Live Free or Die” reads the New Hampshire license plate; something one would expect to read as a tattoo on an Hell’s Angel’s biker rather than as a state motto). They have also been more “cowboy capitalists” than democrats (capitalism meaning only the right to make a lot of money and then restrict the free market in order to retain that wealth; yes, whether we are talking about persons or corporations, that is the American definition of capitalism; let Adam Smith turn over and over and over in his grave).

But now something more precious yet has been lost. What has been lost is “good will” -- the willingness to let policies be debated, for people to disagree, for one’s ideas to be defeated by the will of an informed majority, and above all, to trust one’s fellow citizens. The reasons for this failure are several. Destroyers of “good will” believe that there is only ONE truth. Enemies of “good will” do not believe that there is such a thing as an informed majority, and whether they are the current majority or the current minority they will not agree to any policy or action that defies their own particular views – in full. The rest of us display little effort in destroying their “willful ignorance.” Hate-mongering “citizens” wear their ignorance as a badge of honour and never appeal to reason while we willingly respect their right to vent their spleen rather than spit upon their offensive ideas and positions. In an earlier time, everyone would turn away from such lunatics with disgust and never, ever heed their claims. Because these creatures of hate promote certainties about life (and afterlife for that matter) that are based on “received knowledge” – that is, not knowledge at all but blind belief – trust of one’s fellow citizens is irrelevant. In fact, there no longer is such a thing as “citizen.” Now we have “stakeholders” (those who hold financial stock in the enterprise, not those who were born and live in a community).

The prospect could not be more appalling. Some like to see the problem as “Republicans” or “right-wingers” or “free-marketers” or “pro-lifers” or “evangelical rightists.” And, we apply labels like “fascists” to these people and groups, somehow trying to relieve ourselves of their presence and ugly brutishness by dismissing them as advocates of an antiquated and rejected way of thinking. We are wrong. They are worse than “fascists.” “Kristallnacht” has a close cousin in “town meetings” where gutless screamers shout down Congressmen/women who have organized these meetings to get “input” on the issue of health care. Goebells has nothing on a radio announcer who thinks that a few liberals should be left alive so that we can remind ourselves of what we should avoid. National Socialism’s emphasis on intelligent, healthy Aryan youth has nothing on a society that does not believe that millions of their own citizens should receive preventative and rudimentary health care.

If some vigorous (not violent, not hateful) response is not made very, very soon, Americans are headed for something much worse than second-class world economic status. They are headed for a persistent culture of “hate,” something akin to what has existed in Northern Ireland and still exists in Israel/Palestine. The not-so-Holy Land will have a New World counterpart.