It is a chilling thought that killings in secondary schools are becoming commonplace. If this is not a case of America’s youth crying out for help, then I do not know what is. And if this tells us anything, it tells us that American democracy is on the brink of becoming utterly dysfunctional. It tells us that the ideal of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has become so distorted, if not entirely vapid, that it no longer stands as an ennobling ideal.
Happiness has come to be associated with none other than fleeting moments of euphoria; and as such the difference between living the life of a crack-head and living a noble life is utterly disintegrating. And it is that reality that indicates that American democracy is on the brink of becoming utterly dysfunctional.
There is another way of putting this point. The very idea of humanity as know it is tied to the idea that happiness amounts to substantially more than fleeting moments of euphoria; for if that is all that happiness amounts to, then the difference between the species homo sapiens and the non-human species effectively collapses. Democracy for animals is an oxymoron. So if we who are humans reduce ourselves to animals, then democracy for us becomes oxymoronic.
Let me now introduce what appears to be an utterly irrelevant fact, namely that at the height of racism in the United States, it was possible to walk through a poor black neighborhood without fearing that one’s life would be taken; whereas this typically not the case nowadays.
This seemly irrelevant observation points to the truth that even in the midst of manifest squalor it was possible to sustain a sense of hope and decency that transcended one’s reality. I suggest that increasingly young people no longer have that sense of hope and decency. Increasingly, they do not have the kind of moral and psychological buffer that sustains them through the disappointments that are a part of life, the kind of moral and psychological buffer that permits them to nourishment and hope in their fantasy and dreams.
The sign that American democracy is increasingly becoming dysfunctional is precisely the fact that we have moved from the racism of yesteryear to a conception of equality and happiness in the present that is shorn of nourishment.
Is anyone surprised? What, I ask, is nourishing about a conception of happiness according to which happiness amounts to no more than fleeting moments of euphoria. This conception of happiness is shorn of any notion of right and wrong. It is shorn of anything that is ennobling.
A defeaning feature of human beings is precisely the faact that they can have and pursue a conception of excellence. Surely this is what the writers of The Declaration of Independence had in mind by the phrase “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
They meant to say that no one should define what is excellent for another. They did not mean to say that excellence was an empty concept. My excellence might be that of being a good father, whereas yours might be that of being a scholar. And yet another’s excellence might be that of being a flight attendant. A person can take pride in successfully performing each of the duties or tasks associated with pursing the aforementioned aims.
For the writers of The Declaration of Independence, the idea was that excellence is not to be imposed from some higher governmental authority. Rather, it is to come from within each individual. This, needless to say, is a far cry from happiness as none other than a euphoric moment.
Children killing children bespeaks a profound emptiness. And when one considers that children draw their inspiration, or the lack thereof, from their social environment, then the profound emptiness on the part of children reflects an absolutely deep, deep flaw in society.
The increasingly horrendous behavior of children who are too young to have a sense of themselves is the most telling indication that one could have that the American democracy is becoming dysfunctional.
Does the future have any worth to it? From a child’s perspective, the answer delivered viscerally by the way in which the adult members of society carry themselves. This is why the point about black communities at the height of racism in the United States is so very telling.
In the name of freedom, blacks abandoned the idea of excellence. America is doing precisely the same thing.
Blacks with next to nothing gave worth to the future for their children. And that tell us something that is truly sublime, namely that the wherewithal to impart meaning to the future is tied to the ability to inspire hope and that economic wherewithal is not, contrary to what so many suppose, the key to inspiring hope. Economic wherewith may facilitate inspiring hope, but it is not the key to doing so.
Dysfunctional democracy is democracy that gives the present little reason to take the future seriously. And killing of children by children is telling a sign as any that the American culture is on the brink of becoming dysfunctional.
I shall end on an intriguing note: Hope must be nurtured; and that is next to impossible in a world that eschews excellence, which in turn is impossible in a world that eschews the very idea of right and wrong.
Animals don’t blame one another. We humans, alas, blame eveything but the right thing, namely ourselves and, in particular, the way that we are living before our children.
