Tuesday, July 12. 2005
MODERN AMERICA AND THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY
Loren J. Samons II teaches in the department of Classical Studies at Boston University and has published a book entitled "What's Wrong With Democracy?" The following is an excerpt and he presents an interesting outlook on the condition of America's supposed democratic ideals. He makes a sound argument on the separation between church and state being moot since Democracy has replaced religion. From Civic Arts Review: "The idealization of freedom through democracy has led modern America to a precipitous position. Implicitly denying man's desire for a society based on beliefs and duties that lie beyond a system of government and the rights this government (democracy) is designed to protect, we have replaced society's extra political goals with the potentially antisocial political doctrines of freedom, choice, and diversity. These words have been made to resonate in the citizens' hearts in a way that God, family, and country once did in America (or gods, family, and polis in Athens). At the turn of the twenty-first century, freedom, choice, and diversity represent America's absolute "moral" goods and have become the would-be unifying principles of American society. They cannot be questioned in polite company, while God, family, and country are fair game. What could more clearly demonstrate America's apparent conversion to this new religion than the fact that basic elements of traditional American society-such as the Pledge of Allegiance or the prayers opening Congress-seem to cause embarrassment to many intellectuals, media figures, and even politicians, who seem at most other times to be virtually incapable of embarrassment (much less shame)? In stark contrast, the classical Athenians never lost the ability to pronounce or enforce their collective standards of morality and thus to produce shame in individuals. Even the democratic icon Pericles spoke of those "laws which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace" (Thuc. 2.37). The negative and positive requirements for Athens's citizens analyzed in chapter a show that the Athenians placed real strictures on one another and could not have endorsed modern Americans' idealization of freedom, choice, and diversity. Respect for the laws, obedience to magistrates, and shame or disgrace for those who violated society's written and unwritten codes always formed a central part of Athenian life, which exhibited significant amounts of freedom, choice, and diversity as a result. In the United States today, the anti-values of freedom, choice, and diversity have become so powerful (and dangerous) in part because-note the supreme irony-they admit of no philosophical opposition. One simply cannot oppose treating these ideas as society's appropriate goals without risking being labeled a reactionary, heretic, or worse, as if it had been empirically proven that only peoples or regimes that worship these deities can produce justice or happiness. Has America seen the amount of social justice and personal happiness increase proportionately with its rising estimation of this trinity? Read entire: Click here: MODERN AMERICA AND THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY
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