I watched a conference last night by Dr. Peter Kreeft, via You Tube, reflecting on the legendary 1978 Harvard commencement address of Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn, which he attended. Listening to his analysis, liberally sprinkled with quotes from the infamous speech, got a rant going in my mind. Solzhenitsyn's speech was no rant, but a very carefully crafted, spiritually informed, critique of Western Society in the last quarter of twentieth century. My words here, alas, are not so lofty. I can only hope someday to roughly approximate the Russian's wisdom and courage, and his rhetorical skills in expressing the truth. But for now, a few not so scattered thoughts, continuing my critique of this political season I've been engaging in of late.
I grew up in a partisan household where elections were approached as a matter of the Good Guys versus the Bad Guys. Even if the opposing candidate wasn't evil, his party was, and both had to be stopped if Western Civilization, or at least the Republic, was to survive. If your Good Guy wasn't the candidate you wanted from the beginning, and even if you had serious reservations, you voted for him because he was the "lesser of two evils." But what do you do when one evil seems just as evil as the other, but just in a different way?
This year I do not see any of the remaining declared candidates for President of the United States as having the moral fiber and / or competence to hold that office. Even taking into account that no president is ready from day 1 (each has had to grow in the job to one degree or the other), and we are electing a chief executive, not a pope, the choices this year are troubling. I do not see any potential third party alternative, or last second substitution for the presumptive nominees, that I would enthusiastically vote for either. This is because, no matter their personal qualifications, they are apart of a system has been rendered morally bankrupt, and whoever is elected will just perpetuate the bankruptcy. Though some candidates are claiming to be outsiders who'll shake up the status quo, in the final analysis the problem isn't the institution, its the hearts and minds of the people that is in need of shaking up.
To put it as plainly as I know how, culturally we are presently trapped in a materialistic, consumeristic, shell. Atheistic communism was defeated, but all that happened was that the world was made safe for agnostic capitalism. At least the Soviets had the conviction to say they didn't believe in God. We straddle the fence living in a perpetual doubt that we really don't want answered. Because if we answer that question it means we would actually have to commit to a way of life instead of living the illusion of plastic self determination and fluid identities. The consumerist culture doesn't challenge us, because all it is interested in is ever expanding markets. It doesn't judge, only affirms, in the hope that a new marketing beach head can be opened, and profits increased from the dollars syphoned off from the latest subculture gone mainstream. None of this encourages self examination, self doubt, or conversion of life. As long as the creature comforts are supplied, our basic assumptions left undisturbed, we are content to live in our shell.
Under these circumstances meaningful political change is practically impossible, never mind personal conversion, and what change can be had will be the product of unenlightened self interest or idealism divorced from reality. If the old cliche is true, that we get the presidents that the deserve, in this case we're getting the candidates that we deserve.
I am not saying that I'm not going to vote, or that you shouldn't. Voting is a grave responsibility that shouldn't be shrugged off or carelessly considered. All I'm saying is that as of June 3, 2016 there is no candidate that I have confidence in. The idea that I need to vote for one person because he or she, cankers and all, is still better than the alternative isn't good enough for me: not this election cycle anyway. I'm open to being persuaded, even by the present line up, as pitiful as it is. But if the choice is between two snakes, the fact that one's venom will take slightly longer to kill me is of little solace.
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