One of my congregants read a passage from the late Walter Lippmann today at a meeting, and I found his words both moving and relevant to our current political/financial crisis. The passage is from Lippmann’s essay “The False Gods,” Today and Tomorrow, May 20, 1932. In part, it reads:
“What is it that has shaken the nerves of so many? It is the doubt whether there exists among the people that trust in each other which is the first condition of intelligent leadership. That is the root of the matter. The particular projects which we debate so angrily are not so important. The fate of the nation does not hang upon any of them. But upon the power of the people to remain united for purposes which they respect, upon their capacity to have faith in themselves and in their objectives, much depends. It is not the facts of the crisis which we have to fear. They can be endured and dealt with. It is demoralization alone that is dangerous.
“A demoralized people is one in which the individual has become isolated and is the prey of his own suspicions. He trusts nobody and nothing, not even himself. He believes nothing, except the worst of everybody and everything. He sees only confusion in himself and conspiracies in other men. That is panic. That is disintegration. That is what comes when in some sudden emergency of their lives men (sic) find themselves unsupported by clear convictions that transcend their immediate and personal desires.”
We have a situation now in this country in which nobody knows what to do, and nobody trusts the good will of our leadership. In the face of the current financial meltdown, no more do we believe that “actually, someone is in charge; somebody knows more than I know about how things work–I need not worry.” Instead, it has come down to our “immediate and personal desires.” How does this crisis affect me? Or, in the case of some people, “How can I profit from this crisis?” Or in the case of some of our Congress people, “What must I say or do to be re-elected?”
We see conspiracies everywhere. We fear that power given will be power misused. What seemed perfectly clear a few weeks ago is no longer on the radar screen at all. Hardly anyone is thinking like a citizen; many seem to being thinking how to gain advantage, rather than how to help and to heal.
The remedy? Try honesty and trust. Try integrity. Try being sensitive to the needs of the poor. “The world is flat,” Thomas Freidman says, and all of us are one. All of us are one, yes, but not only in terms of our flow of money and goods, our fast-food joints, and our pop music–we are also one much more more literally, much closer to the flesh. We cannot be separated, one from the other. What is good for one is good for all; what hurts one, hurts all.
We know that withdrawing honesty, trust, integrity from any relationship destroys that relationship. We also know that whatever we do for ourselves alone is not enough, it is never enough. We move through each day of our lives only with the support and care of many others. The complex systems of families, communities, institutions, and governments that hold us are there only because of the common faith and trust of many who are present now and the many who came before.
The power of the people depends upon our faith in something larger than our immediate needs and desires. We need leaders of integrity and vision who can bring us together. We need leaders who can summon us to a future that is worthy of our lives.
