Working on a New Ethical Consensus, 6-25-2010

 [This is a continuation of Aristotle, Ethics, and Me. sch 12/18/22]

I think our ethical consensus broke the day Richard M. Nixon resigned as President. After that date, we never could find agree on ethical issues. The Civil Rights Movement and the anti-war movements had attacked the falseness of the America represented by Nixon. His resignation proved those critiques were in the right. Take a look at films like The Graduate and Deliverance and The Paper Chase and Serpico and The Parallax View for reflections of this breakdown.

We expected our leaders to be above certain sorts of bad behavior. I recall arguing during the Clinton impeachment hearings that we did not elect Clinton as Pope but as President - that I couldn't care less who he screwed so long as he did not screw us. I remain thinking our Presidents are not Popes, but I do see they do have a moral responsibility. After all, that was what the country expected from Nixon. Not that the faults of our leaders absolve us of moral responsibility. We retain the ultimate responsibility for ourselves and for the country.

We need discussions about what virtues make for the best American society. We may even create an American community.

I leave you with this from Book II, Chapter 9 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics:

That is why it is also hard work to be excellent. For in each case it is hard work to find the intermediate; for instance, not everyone, but only one who knows, finds the midpoint in a circle. So also getting angry, or giving and spending money is easy and everyone can do it; but doing it to the right person, in the right amount, at the right time, for the right end, and in the right way is no longer easy, nor can everyone do it. Hence doing these things well is rare, praiseworthy, and fine.

 Would that we could discuss these things. I know few leave comments here, but this might be a place for such a discussion.

sch