Ethic after the 2016 election

I have not written here recently for a reason. The election as well as the mood of the nation leading up to and following the election has thrown a paint bomb (or worse) on all of my thoughts about ethics. My ethics is based on Josiah Royce’s notion of leading all conflicting parties toward a “Beloved Community.” And yet to many of my friends, as well as writers that I read, coming together is the last thing on their mind. People on both sides denounce, as traitors, anyone who talks about reconciliation.

But Royce did not ignore evil. In fact he understood as well as any philosopher ever did the need to take evil into account. The good is a harmony that comes about by overcoming the disruption that we call evil.

Integrity, or wholeness, which constitutes the meaning of a good individual, also defines a good society. Working for the social harmony, which constitutes a well-integrated society, presents a challenge because individuals have a natural tendency to fear or hate anything or anyone foreign (fortunately this is not our only natural tendency). Babies are often terrified by strange faces. Children form groups of friends who see other groups as their natural rivals on the streets or playgrounds. As adults we form societies, but historically, other tribes or nations take on the role of enemies, especially if they have a different ethnicity, race, or religion. Even within a nation, foreigners are suspect, as are groups with differing lifestyles or ideologies.

The study of history can leave us with a sense of pessimism about the destiny of the human race. Recent history with horrifying events such as world wars, the holocaust, nuclear and fire bombings of civilian populations, mass murders in the old Soviet Union, in Africa and in Asia, can create a sense of doom and despair. Our hatreds are so strong that any hope for improvement seems illusory.  The worst case scenarios not only loom as real possibilities, but have too frequently become realities. Yet, the study of history also offers some hope. While doom is possible it is not inevitable, and while moral progress is precarious, it does not constitute an impossible dream.

A look at some pessimistic predictions from the past can give us some perspective. In the early nineteenth century, many thoughtful Americans, as well as many more thoughtless ones, believed that a democratic government and way of life could not withstand the waves of Catholic immigrants. On another front, fights between workers and company owners were so brutal and deadly that the Marxian notion of all-out class warfare had some credence. Some Americans considered the notion of African-Americans taking an equal place in society as impossible, if not wrong, and many anti-equality proponents enforced their views with murder and oppression. The urban riots in the 1960’s seemed to confirm the opinion of those whites and blacks who argued against the notion of a racially integrated society. While it is true that the forces of divisiveness remain rampant, especially in politics, and especially before, during, and after the 2016 election, the fact that we as a nation have so far avoided all out labor wars and racial wars gives hope that we can overcome our current tendencies toward disintegration.

A Roycean approach to differences would strive toward integrating all people within a society and all nations in an interdependent world of trade and cooperation.  Good, as teleological harmony, emerges as the ethical guide for social as well as personal practice.