just enough light

Walter Meller wrote an impassioned opinion article in the Abilene Reporter News on June 13 calling for a return to sanity in our country. I concur with his premise, that we as a nation have lost our “moral underpinnings” and that we must “come to an understanding that honesty, fairness, and morality form the foundation of freedom.” That’s all well and good, but the meanings and manifestations of honesty, fairness and morality will vary greatly depending on one’s perspective.

In making his argument, Mellen lists a wide range of what he sees as social, economic, and political ills, but then he confusingly attributes them to problems of excesses, a drift toward socialism, and a wildly conspiratorial view of COVID-19.

What’s missing in this dizzying array of issues is some distinction between those that are genuine problems, those that are symptomatic of deeper issues, and those that are simply complaints about things that are not going the way he wants in this country. I recognize myself in many of his “old white guy” complaints.

Just as an example, Meller lists racism as one of our social problems. We can all agree that racism is a genuine concern in our country, but again, perspective is crucial. From one perspective, racism can be seen as a problem to be eradicated, such as, “We just need to stop being racist,” or more likely, “We need to stop making such a big deal about race.” These responses are typical of one who has not been the target of racism. From another perspective, if the events in our country over the past year have revealed anything, it is that racism is not something you just stop doing. It is an ingrained part of our national story. If fact, it is our national story. It is also a part of each of our personal histories, a reality we are shaped by and participate in. Rather than being something we need to eradicate, as if we could, we need instead to carefully consider and address racism from the perspective of those who have suffered, not from the perspective of someone like me who has the luxury of merely observing and criticizing.

The same kinds of things can be said about many of the social and economic ills listed. It’s easy to list our discontents when we have been inconvenienced by others or by policies. That’s not the same as being a target.

Socialism, Meller’s second source of the problem, is an easy target for political and economic conservatives. I suppose any governmental program that provides services to people can be labeled as socialist, but the term is usually reserved for those programs that don’t benefit me and my group. Programs that help groups we see as less deserving are labeled as socialist, as government handouts and undeserved entitlements. Social programs that help me and my group are seen as the earned rewards of freedom.

Most people who warn that socialism as the problem fail to make a distinction between socialism and social capitalism, or the finer distinction between social capitalism and corporate capitalism. We as a nation are in no danger of becoming a socialist nation as long as we exercise our representative democracy. We have, however, moved more toward corporate capitalism, creating an expansive and growing gap between those with more than enough and everyone else. This has created or exacerbated a number of the social and economic ills listed by Meller. Social capitalism seeks to balance our responsibility toward one another with our personal freedoms as the preamble to the Constitution suggests, “…to promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty…”

Mellen’s third thesis was based on a quote that COVID-19 was “orchestrated” to rupture our constitutional rights, gain power over the middle class, and render us ineffective and helpless. That bit of conspiratorial nonsense does not merit a response.

Honesty, fairness, and morality should indeed be among our foundational principles, but we must be careful and clear about what those terms mean in our society. Those three values have been in short supply over the past few years, from the top down. It becomes the responsibility of each of us to reinstate those values from the bottom up, in who we are, in how we treat the neighbors we like, in how we respond those we don’t like or agree with, and in electing and supporting people who embody those values.