By DONALD DeMARCO
The issue of whether America is still a great society has come up again and again during the presidential campaigns. Does the word “great” accurately characterize the present culture that is the United States?
In order to deal with this question, the first thing one must do is to establish the criteria for greatness. There are two that are most worthy of discussion: 1) how society treats its weakest members; 2) the civility of discourse among its strongest members.
“A nation’s greatness,” stated Mahatma Gandhi, “is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
Author Pearl S. Buck echoed this sentiment when she declared that “the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for is helpless members.”
Ancient Sparta took the opposite approach which brought about its total collapse as a nation. It is remembered as a society that gambled on military strength and the survival of the fittest, only to self-destruct. The same can be said of the Roman Empire. Social Darwinism has proven to be counter-evolutionary. Human beings survive and prosper because of love, not strength.
In his last speech, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey stated the matter more pointedly: “…The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”
President Jimmy Carter affirmed what Humphrey stated when he commented that “The measure of a society is found in how they [sic] treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.”
Finally, from a Catholic perspective, Roger Cardinal Mahony stated that “any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members — the last, the least, the littlest.”
And societies are, indeed, judged.
In present-day America, no one has a right to life for the first nine months of his existence. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wants “no restrictions” placed on abortion (which, logically, would allow forcing certain women to have abortions). Hillary Clinton declares that the “unborn person” has no rights whatsoever.
At the other end of the age spectrum, organizations such as “Compassion and Choice” are relentless in their promotion of euthanasia for the elderly or anyone who wants to end his life.
Life at the edges of life is now greatly imperiled. Should only the strong inherit the Earth?
The present picture in which the strongest survive and the weakest are left unprotected looks more like a heartless society that a great one. It has the Darwinian character of the survival of the fittest and not an abiding concern for the weakest.
Civil discourse, especially among the well-educated, is currently impoverished, often descending to the level of insult and abuse. Martin Buber once remarked that the inability to “carry on authentic dialogue with one another is the most acute symptom of the pathology of our time.”
The proper use of words, vital for meaningful communication, appears to be vanishing from society. Words are replaced by arbitrary constructs that serve ideological purposes.
To speak about abortion, for example, as an instance of “domestic violence,” which it is, would provoke anger and outrage among abortion advocates. The notion of “dying with dignity,” in the push for euthanasia, is a pure construct and disregards the more important mandate of “living with dignity.” People can no longer agree on the meaning of words.
“Marriage,” “morality,” “male,” “female,” and “virtue” are twisted out of shape. Hence, communication, especially on critical moral issues, becomes problematic if not impossible.
The argument that America has descended into barbarism is not without merit. The ancient Greeks ridiculed people who spoke in alien languages. They believed that such people were merely babbling incoherently. The word “barbarism” was coined to mimic the meaningless sound of “bar-bar.” Those who uttered such sounds were called “barbarians.”
Rémi Brague, a French professor of religious philosophy, believes that the West has fallen into barbarism because of its inability to communicate. “Civilization means conversation,” he states, and without communication, violence follows. A nation cannot work effectively toward the elimination of violence if it cannot use meaningful verbal expression to solve its problems.
The blindly accepted myth of progress has led to a rejection of the past. This rejection, however, means that we no longer communicate with the past. By the same token, future generations, beguiled by their own sense of superiority, will reject the accomplishments of the present generation. They may think that the wisdom of the past is nothing more than a reiteration of “bar-bar.”
Barbarism can also be understood as severing the connection between those who are dead and those who are yet to be born. It is intellectually isolationistic and deprives itself of nourishment from the triumphs of the past and altruistic spirit that is mindful of the future.
The net result is confusion, as in the Tower of Babel. When people can no longer speak to each other, they can no longer work together. Society, then, disintegrates. Violence becomes the desperate alternative to communication.
Is America a great society?
Providing and enforcing laws that remove care from its weakest members, and being unable to communicate meaningfully on critical moral issues would seem to indicate that America is now closer to barbarism than it is to greatness.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University; adjunct professor and Holy Apostles College & Seminary; a senior fellow, Human Life International, and regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest book is In Praise of Life.)
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