American Ideal, circa 2002

The Democratic Ideal; Larger Than America

In the wake of 9/11, everyone everywhere has been advertising his or her American pride. You see bumper stickers, billboards, T-shirts, commercials… every type of media imaginable shouting out gratitude for our American heritage. But what does it mean to say you are a proud American? What is the essence of American pride? Is it the quality of living? Is it the high level of comfort most of our citizenry enjoys? Is it our technological prowess or our enormous economic prosperity? If this is what lies at the heart of American pride, there can be no doubt that we are the greatest nation on earth. No one anywhere could argue with our superior position of material success. But is this what it truly means to be American? I believe not.
I am proud in a way that cannot be described in words of our heritage as Americans. The great experiment of self-rule and the struggle that made it a reality have since paved the way for we Americans to enjoy the fruits of Democracy in a personal and fundamental way. Democracy is not without its problems, but in spite of these, I fully believe that Democracy as a way of life is the best way of life. Many of our founding fathers believed that Democracy would only succeed if the citizens were educated in the rules of participatory government, and also that it was essential for the success of a representative government that its citizens be on constant alert from corruption from within. Being a citizen in a representative Democracy is by nature a time consuming endeavor, and it requires a constant watchfulness and awareness of issues facing the public at large. A well informed public will naturally do more for furthering Democracy in the rest of the world than a misinformed or indifferent public, and a public which ignores its responsibility in checking the motives and actions of its governing body is harmful to the cause of Democracy.
It is for this reason that I became a teacher. I am committed to the work of teaching our American children the skills necessary to their futures as members of our Democratic Republic. So what, exactly, are those skills? Chief among them are the ability to think critically and to judge the merits of thoughts and ideas (and the actions that result from them) based on how those thoughts and ideas contribute to furthering the Democratic ideal. I am at once both fearful and hopeful.
I am fearful that the easy life of material success so enjoyed in our society by so many will continue to produce in greater numbers American citizens who are totally indifferent to the protection of the ideals that made that very success a possibility. It seems overwhelmingly evident at times that the inclination of our society is chiefly toward a concern with protecting our means of consumer gluttony, and that the system of Democracy which paved the way for our unparalleled success is not even considered, much less understood by the average citizen.
History has played out this and similar stories before.
A great nation, built on great ideals and who began to experience unparalleled success, found itself in a position in which it saw itself far superior to all others. Gradually, its citizenry worked less hard at preserving what it had built, and focused instead on enjoying the products of its success. The people became less interested in the goings on of their government, which was easy to do with so much in life to be enjoyed. Then, as time rolled by, the government gradually started to do things, which were in violation of the principles, which the citizenry had come to equate with their sense of nationalism. The citizenry, not wanting to believe that their government could possibly do anything that contradictory to its touted idealism, and not willing to devote the time and effort necessary to check for themselves whether or not their government was still the one which they believed they had, became so unconcerned that they didn’t notice until it was too late that fanatics and fundamentalists and self-serving interests had taken control of the governing body; serving the greater social good was no longer the government’s function. At that point the citizenry was faced with two unpleasant choices; try to live within the system and ignore the corruption, or risk the consequences of speaking out against the powers that were.
The fanatical nationalism that gripped the German people at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power must have seemed to the citizens at the time a good thing. Who didn’t want to feel national pride? Who didn’t want to believe that fierce loyalty was a virtue? Those in doubt were told to quit rabble-rousing; to support their government and trust in its inherent desire to serve the public good. But the fact remains that what fascism is is extreme nationalism, and a society which belittles the rights of its minority to speak against the status quo, which demands that the minority opinions silence themselves for the sake of national unity, is no longer a society which embraces the basic tenet of Democracy, which is the value of individual rights and freedoms to all members of the society, not only the dominant voice. It is then a society which, unwittingly, had already given up the very thing it professes to embrace. For when the citizens of a government no longer concern themselves with active monitoring and participation, and instead choose to overlook certain isolated transgressions of the governing body against the principles of Democracy, then it is already almost too late.
These thoughts lay heavy on me, as we, in the months since 9/11, have seen our government do many things that are contrary to Democracy. The threat of “terror” has been exploited to the fullest, and is being used to anesthetize us against the terrible violations of the Democratic Ideal being perpetrated by our government. We ignore or minimize the torture and consequent beating to death of Afghan detainees under supervision of our military; the arrogant dismissal of UN procedure and authority in the world theatre by our current administration; the total lack of material evidence before the recent declaration of war; the hypocrisy of our moral certitude in singling out Iraq; the atrocities being perpetrated on impoverished Palestinians by our ally, Israel; our invasion and aggressive declaration of war on what is now a third-world country, whose infrastructure was destroyed by us ten years ago; and worst of all, the ostracizing and ridiculing of the minority voice in this country. When the government of a nation which professes itself a Democracy tries to silence the voice of dissent, and when many of that nation’s citizens participate in the effort, either actively by social persecution, or inactively through indifference, then that nation is in a precarious position with an uncertain future. We have seen this before, but are we, the citizens of the Democratic Republic we claim to love, wise enough to learn from the lessons of history? Are we committed enough to the ideals if Liberty and Democracy that we will recognize when our government has turned its back on them, and act to correct that wrong? My great hope is that yes, we are. Democracy as a philosophy of life, as a way of living, demands of those who embrace it that they speak out and socially mobilize in its defense, regardless of the transgressor. The ideals that made America the great nation that we are, are bigger than America and true Americans will not flinch away from confronting those who abandon them, even for a moment. We cannot allow our government to set aside our ideals in its quest to get a “regime change” in Iraq; we cannot condone the torture of anyone, no matter their crimes, and still hold true to the principles our nation was built on. If we want to be an agent of Democracy in the world, we cannot ignore the will of the majority of the world’s governments by imposing our will, through military might, on anyone, no matter how corrupt they may be. If we do so, we will lose all credibility as a force for Democracy in the world, and we will do irreparable harm to the cause of liberty, peace, and equality. In Democracy, the proper means are the ends, and unjust means, under any circumstance, destroy our cause.