Doing what is "right"

Florida woman leaves millions
in trust fund for Conchita,
her pet Chihuahua.

Apropros of my comments about the powerlessness of the President, I have been considering another, perhaps even more serious problem of our contemporary government, the concept of doing the “right” thing has disappeared. That is, in my rather idyllic view of government, especially a democracy, people elect representatives of various kinds to use their collective judgments to do the right thing, be it for the clan, the tribe, the nation, or some particular group. This assumes that there is a right thing to be done in the interest of the group, and the right thing can be determined by careful thought and consideration of the various options available. This is a process no longer possible as there is no longer any way to determine what the right thing to do is. First of all, right no longer has to do with what is best for the community. Second, in a large and complex society, what is right for some is wrong for others, and thus no consensus can ever provide the right thing to do. Doing right is not even possible when decisions are made based upon political expediency, and different points of view must be considered. What emerges is not what is right but, rather, what can be agreed upon by those who have been given the authority to decide. What is right is decided by negotiation and there is no possibility of an absolute right. For example, it would seem to me to clearly be the case that getting out of Afghanistan is the right thing to do. But this cannot happen because there are too many conflicting points of view. What is right is simply irrelevant. Malcolm X once said something to the effect that “You should not be so blinded by patriotism that you cannot see reality, wrong is wrong no matter who does it.” However, in our present society we often do things that are wrong because they are expedient. For example, our uncritical support of Israel when they commit a blatant crime is wrong, but it is apparently expedient. The issue of whether something is right or wrong simply doesn’t matter when right and wrong are decided by political negotiations.

Sorry, something has come up, to be continued tomorrow...