We are suffering from a crisis of character. This is because we are in a faith crisis — we are in the midst of a sea-change of worldview brought about by the scientific revolution and enlightenment thought. We are in the middle because most people in the world still embrace a magical worldview, and hold narrow, parochial views in which they believe that they are the special focus of supernatural concern and action. We will be over the hump of this transition when the vast majority of us recognize that we are all human beings, sharing a common past and a common future, equally deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – and that as far as we can tell, the course of our life is determined by our evolutionary heritage and our cultural, political and economic context. We will not complete this transition until we realize that it is fundamentally wrong to force the majority of the world to support our privileged lifestyle, simply because we got here first.
I am describing the issue – I am not suggesting how we get there. I imagine that we will find a host of ways – I do not believe that we need a single world order (in fact, I suspect this will impede progress), nor a particular political or economic system. True, I suspect progress will most likely involve some sort of democracy, and some form of free enterprise – but I also suspect that there is lots of latitude here as well.
Character is the glue that holds our ship together while we navigate through the sea of life. Character is the sum of the rules and strategies by which we determine how and what we do – and so our character is demonstrated by our words and actions. Community is the group expression of character. It is a self-reinforcing embodiment of what we will and will not tolerate, demonstrates the way members want to be treated, and the illustrates the quality of life we want to experience.
Both character and community are informed by our beliefs – which are the justifications we give ourselves for the character and community we promote. Faith, finally, is the confidence we have that our beliefs are accurate.
So in what is our faith? What do we believe? How does that manifest in character and community? The answers to these questions determine the shape of our lives – our family, neighborhood, government – even corporations. The things we value, the aspirations we have, the ways in which we define quality of life – these are the datums that democracy and capitalism respond to – the things that cause us to vote and buy.
When we are silent, or when we allow politicians, religious leaders or corporations to define our character for us (as Bush did after 9/11, when he defined us as consumers, stating that the appropriate response to the terrorist attack was to go shopping), we are shaped into caricatures of humanity – single issue voters, consumers, defined by our appetites and hates.
We need to reverse the order here – and wake up to the fact that government, corporations, even religious movements should exist for us – not the other way around. The only way to make this happen is through activism. Rather than be herded, surveyed, split into demographic groups and manipulated – we need to get back to a character rooted in a shared humanity, and a respect for one another (where ever in the world that other lives), our environment, and an enduring quality of life.
These are not idealist values (or not only idealistic), but the simple reality – as we face shortages, pollution, climate change and the rising power of governments, religions and corporations, we must find a way to create – world-wide – people-sized communities where basic human principles of freedom, tolerance, sustainability and an acceptable quality of life is the norm.
No central force (religious, economic or governmental) can achieve this. One of the lessons of large militaries facing insurgencies is that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to put down a popular, grass-roots, decentralized movement. All of humanity must become such a movement – not at war with each other, but relentlessly at peace with ourselves, our community, the world and our ecosystem.
Apr 13, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I don’t know about the faith crisis… with over 6.5 billion people in the world and over 85% of the world believes in a God, and of that 33% are a part of the Christian faith of some sorts and 21% of the population is Muslim or a faction of Muslim. There are only 500,000 Scientologist worldwide. 15% of the entire world does not believe in any God or higher power. The “Fear Factor” comes from the control of the 15%, because they are the Tom Cruise’s of the world and most of the media outlets including most of the scientific community. To me the crisis seems bigger than it is.
I don’t know what you mean when you say that the “majority of the world to support our privileged lifestyle”? Who is supporting us? If you are under the assumption that the recent financial crisis translates to the world supporting us I strongly disagree. Our lifestyle is predicated on the principles of freedom, rights, and equality. That is what makes our lifestyle seem privileged, the freedom to pursue our goals and dreams. Freedom has always been the signature of the American dream and the foundation of our economy, our economy is predicated on the value that others place on our structure. The fact we have running water, or a network of highways, schools, libraries, streetlights, and parks create the amenities of our lifestyle. Our lifestyle has created endless opportunities for all other counties to prosper and move from the Stone Age to today. Consumption at any level is a necessity for growth and prosperity. Your definition of prosperity is universally scalable by country and societies. Other nations “supporting us” by loaning us money is only capable because of our spending and trade deficits. It’s all a big circle…. It’s all built on a fake and false premise of value. The value of money is nothing but perception. As Larry Norman the father of Christian Rock said, “a bag of gold will buy a loaf of bread”, in Zimbabwe it costs 25 Billion Dollars… literally! We are the most productive nation in the world, no one comes close, and therefore I feel we have the tools and structure to create worldwide prosperity.
Character must become the center piece of our democracy and capitalism future structure, I agree, but I don’t understand how Character is “informed: by our beliefs. Our beliefs structure our character good and bad. What we say we believe and what we actually do when no one is looking is in fact the nature of our character, it may be that our character deposes our beliefs, exposing our selfishness and wrong thinking; it then directs our community by actions that has over time the ability to rebuild flawed characters in our community.
Character is individual not corporate, there is no structure that has a “good character” only the leader and individuals who make up our corporate structures have good or bad character in my opinion. What President Bush said about going shopping was not written down on tablets of stone that Moses carried down from Mount Sinai, therefore it becomes an excuse by others to use statement as a label and bad behavior. If someone telling me that I am just a consumer… and I want to run with that then my character is not worth much.
What you are saying is so true about the reverse order we must seek through activism! I think the route of the activism must occur and be taught on individual levels, to rebuild the strong value of community. When I watch a show like Extreme Home Make Over and see so many people doing the right thing I can help and think… why are they building one family a $500,000 or $1,000,000 home fully furnished to boot? Community service is a form of activism; it shows our leaders, corporation, and government that alone, we the people can make and will make a difference. When have you ever heard of any President having a field day with exposing all the good individuals do to expose the virtues of character and community? They cannot do it because it reveals that we really don’t need the government. I was amazed by the people of South Dakota, thousands of individuals stopping the floods by building dams on their own… of course days later the government shows up to help. But they did not need their help… empowered people as you state managing their own communities. It could start by bring back the power to the state level to manage resources and taping into a national level for crisis and catastrophe. The real issue is greed; right thinking and character influenced by a higher power will move us from selfish to selfless and that in my opinion is the only course of action to distribute equally empowerment.
Apr 14, 2009 at 7:34 am
We certainly are in a faith crisis, among others and we most certainly are embracing many world views. The thought that we are in any sort of crisis because of “magical worldviews or hold narrow, parochial views in which they believe that they are the special focus of supernatural concern and action” seems to condemn spiritual views and in particular Christianity. The issues of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness illustrative of the American Declaration of Independence, seems to be in conflict with the thought that it is “fundamentally wrong” to force the majority of the world to support our priviledged lifestyle…
Without a spiritual approach to Character, Character becomes whatever a community says that it is. There is a fundamental issue of faith, the object of our faith and the living out of that faith in our lives.
Your post seems to imply a Liberation Theology without the Theology. It seems to suggest that there is inherent community based character that will “will out” if you will and seek to be demonstrated by our words and actions. These aspirations you talk about are supposed to help define a quality of life.
fourteen years as a homicide prosecutor, have shown me that people are basically selfish or at least act in there own self-interest and there is an abundance of evil in the world. Many people try to follow the law and some do but other only do so because men and women with guns will come and arrest you if you don’t follow the law.
No amount of community or social gospel stopped Hitler and Mussolini. It was the power of the gun, put in place by the economies of the democracties and communist states that brought them to their knees.
The vast majority of the world don’t believe in a democratic form of government and refuse religous tolerance of other spiritual community including Christianity.
The genocide in the Sudan shows how little support the west has for the suffering of Christians.
Many wars have been fought in the name of religion and of Christianity but it still help lead the anti-slavery, emacipation movements, not to mention the civil rights, women sufferage, child labor reform, pioneered education in the new world and sought about the preservation of knowlege during the dark ages.
We live in a world where there is now a “cult of tolerance” where it is more important to be tolerant than to focus on what we tolerate(?).
You have suggested that FAITH IS THE CONFIDENCE WE HAVE OUR BELIEFS ARE ACCURATE.
I think I know what you were trying to say but I believe the object of that faith is the most important consideration. I suppose that I believe more in a spiritual view than in the hope that human beings will all come together in activism and embrace freedom, tolerance in an acceptable quality of life.
I guess in the end I believe more in an infinite personal God than in the scientific revolution, enlightenment of thought and evolutionary heritage.
Apr 15, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I share some of your mis-givings. All the same, it seems to me that people change their behaviour, based on the time, place and community they find themselves in. Violence and lawlessness seem to call for one kind of response, peace and security another. Not always true, but largely true.
This does not seem to be tied to religious faith. Many highly religious countries are violent, while many laregly secular countries are much more peaceful, and its citizens happy.
When I talk about faith, moreover, I am contrasting a pre-enlightenment worldview with the current (western) view. Then, God was assumed to be personally involved in most everything – from crops to childbirth to the sunset. Now, God is only involved in these wonders at the end of a long causal chain, if at all.
I am not suggesting that if we jjust all hang out and love each other, all our problems will be solved. But I am suggesting that if we insist on living independantly, our problems will get worse.
We do have the ability to think about the times we live in, and resolve to do things differently. I am suggesting that we do just that. Will we all reach the same conclusions? Obviously not. Will I approve of all the solutions? Emphatically not. But I don’t see any real option. Individual actions will nto get us out of our mess. Fortuanely, this is a lesson we’ve learned many, many times in our history, and we are evolved for cooperative groups. We need to realize this, and work tegether to determine what those groups shouls look like – drawing on the wisdom of the past, and the lessons we’ve learned in the past few hundred years.