Just What In The Heck Is The Common Good Anyway?
Just What In The Heck Is "The Common Good" Anyway??
August 24, 2021
I suppose it's a bit on the egotistical side to quote oneself in trying to make a point, whether on the political situation or anything topical for that matter. But, I have to start somewhere, so here it is, from a Blog post of mine from March.
["As a general principle, the politics and methods of governance by leadership is mostly going to be the projection of their personalities and intentions through the strategic policies which they advocate, as defined by their relationship to the People as a whole. Without the "General Welfare" concept, which some might call the Common Good, ALL of politics is corrupt."]
Many of us have stood for this idea of the "Common Good", yet the definition of the concept still remains nebulous and therefore subject to interpretation.
The obvious first question to ask is, "what is the good"? Plato, through Socrates in his dialogue "The Republic" takes up this question to raise the larger question for societies of "What is Justice"? Socrates proceeds to demolish his sophist interlocutors and his hostile adversary Thrasymachus through negation and extension, using his famous method of Socratic questioning to prove what Justice is not.
Ultimately the argument reaches its climax when Thrasymachus argues that "Justice is the Will of the stronger", and that the just ruler governs by "rewarding his friends, and punishing his enemies". Socrates makes short work of carving up that fallacious and bankrupt view, which then leads to the central concept underlying Plato's entire work. That is, that "Justice is its own reward".
This concept of a selfless and disinterested governance, in which the designated leaders adopt human dignity, progressive science,, and the isochronicity of history as their guide, is what I believe shaped the concepts underlying the Preamble to the US Constitution and its central concept of The General Welfare.
Two essential points I would make here are that Hamilton, Madison and Jay, the most influential of our Framers along with Franklin, were not Christian Fundamentalists who used the King James Bible as their inspiration. They were, for the most part, unchurched, and fierce critics of the immoral hypocrisy of the English Church under the leadership of the demented George III, as well as those nominally Christian Sovereigns who repeatedly plunged Europe into fratricidal religious war over centuries.
Any serious investigation of the Framer's model for the Constitution starts with Plato's Republic and an intense study of the Greeks. It resonates throughout the Federalist Papers which were the publicly circulated arguments in favor of its ratification.
The current batch of self-defined Patriots of the religious right wing are intellectual and moral frauds, historically illiterate and livid with lies and deception, as they attempt to impose a religious autocracy on the US as a form of Christian "Sharia Law". They are lying when they argue that the US was founded as a "Christian nation" based on "Biblical" teachings.
The second point is the concept of isochronicty and its implication. The essence of it is that in a republic, the designated leadership, whether elected or appointed, must adopt governance which acts in real time in accordance with all time, taking Plato's concept of the good as the standard, and making it efficient for the past, present and future simultaneously.
Concretely, policies should maximize the benefit of all of the people in the present, but with the future determining what we do in the present. Meaning, not everything that we do in the here and now in attempting to benefit the people is necessarily good for the future. Likewise, we can't sacrifice the good in the present in the name of building a better future. We need to have a balance between what is "the good" for both the present and the future. Hence, the Preamble's emphasis on the General Welfare to secure the Blessings of Liberty "for ourselves and our posterity".
And by implication, when we transmit the discoveries, successes, contributions in all fields, and sacrifices of those people who lived before, and use them to enrich and further "the good" in the present and the future, this gives added meaning to those accomplishments, and actually serves to change the past by doing so. The lives of those who came before us have greater significance, and can continue even beyond their mortal lifespan to make "the good" more efficient in the present and the future, should we construct a just society which allows for that.
Consider that this concept is what leads to Plato's development of his argument for the immortality of the soul in his later Trilogy on the trial and death of Socrates, (specifically "The Phaedo") who was judicially murdered by the Oligarchs and sophists of Greece. (the Fox News of their day)
Also it is useful to compare that concept of immortality to the borderline psychotic "Tooth Fairy" version of today's Trump aligned Evangelicals, of a Heaven populated by rich white suburbanites who don't have to spend eternity in an integrated neighborhood of people not like them, or below them in God's pecking order. Imagine what those types imagine themselves doing with their infinitely allotted time floating around invisibly in space for all eternity. Their idea of immortality is to continue doing what they do in this temporal world, which is to do what?
Well, given their track record, their concept of the good is very very tiny, very self-interested, mostly applied to the lifetimes of their own family trees and the handfuls of others who wander into their purview by accident, with nothing "General or Common" about it. They see Heaven as a place with limited and reserved seating, with our short time on Earth a mad scramble of each against all in an apocalyptic game of musical chairs.
Woe unto any nation or society which allows this concept of immortality, justice, or governance to prevail. It is what generates failed states, wars, and societal collapse. Any serious study of history will prove that societies which reject scientific discovery and the "Common Good" in favor of a parochial and mystical idea of "faith" will simultaneously negate the good in most of its manifestations, for past, present and future.
I believe that the failure or omission on our parts to concretize what is in fact the seemingly nebulous concept of the "Common Good" in the form of actual policy will unfortunately sow the seeds of tragedy. And this every bit as much as the malignant and selfish policies of our modern day heirs to Plato's Thrasymachus, as embodied in today's Trumpian fascistic GOP.
We need to think in "all time", not live "in the moment" if our republic is going to survive, which is to say that the words " The Comon Good" cannot remain a euphemistic flag which we run up the flagpole as our answer to the gangster-like self-aggrandizing ideology of our adversaries. A philosophical concept without content or intention is exactly that, an empty euphemism.
Unfortunately, too many among us who are preoccupied with doing the good in the present and future are obsessed with Doomsday. Stopping Nuclear War, stopping Climate catastrophe, stopping mass starvation, stopping race war, and stopping Pandemic diseases. Our concept of the good is defined negatively, which often leads us to carry unknowingly the virus of cultural pessimism. There is very little discussion of what it is positively that we seek to accomplish as a society. We have personal goals galore, but for the world as a whole, not so much.
Why is this? Because for the most part, we as a people live in the moment, and we have a cynical view of human nature. This is where we fall short, and in a sense it is our greatest danger. It is how we arrived at the place where we are. It is, in my not so humble view, the most important change we have to make. Call it a "revolution of the mind".
Take some time to toss this around, have a discussion. Ask yourselves how we have harmed ourselves and our future by thinking myopically and cynically. Why didn't we do more to anticipate and prevent the current existential crisis, and in that light, what might we do differently now to solve it? Those are questions for which we must each find our own answers, but requires a bit of self-reflection to get there. If anyone thinks there is a shortcut to avoid this kind of a process and that we can still somehow escape from this mess, then we are kidding ourselves.
On that note, have fun and carry on.
(Photo- Plato and Aristotle, depicted in Raphael's "School of Athens")
