A slightly different approach to this “value” or “moral”
came my senior year in college. A noted
Lutheran scholar, Dr. George Forell, was lecturing in a class on History of
Economics –and stated that there was no such thing as “pure altruism”. Confident, as any 21 year old is, I
challenged Dr. Forell – and his response was to give me enough time to hang
myself! Each person that I mentioned as
being “purely altruistic” [i.e. Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer], he clearly
pointed out the personal benefit each example gained. Dr. Forell did that
without being judgmental of the person nor did he deny the good that each had
achieved. Rather, he simply taught me
that my Grandmother was even more right than even she probably knew!
I would like to report that the lessons taught by
Grandmother and Dr. Forell were successfully employed throughout my life –
personally and professionally! However,
such a ‘report’ would be false! The
temptations to act or perform in certain situations are great –
and, coupled with the ease by which one can identify the “good intention” or
the “altruistic” result – well, too often my actions shared in “paving the way
to hell”! Oh, I never tried to solve any
economic problems such as Hitler did with the “Jewish solution”. Nor did I attempt to improve my financial
circumstances through the development of Ponzi schemes and/or other gimmicks
which could “look good” to the unsuspecting.
Many of the top stories of our time highlight the difficulty
all of us face in the discernment of “good intentions” and “altruism.
·
Obtaining the oil reserves in the land of North
Dakota has many “good intentions”: it can help us be less dependent on foreign
oil reserves; it can bring needed employment to a state that has always
struggled to offer sufficient opportunities to its youth. However, as we are learning daily, the
process employed in accessing these oil reserves – fracking – is having
significant negative consequences: pollution of land and water already make
some areas inhabitable; the constant movement of the oil by trucking
contributes to air and space pollution; the number of employees brought in from
other states is causing a burden in many communities; and, the major share of
the “profits” are not going to the citizens of North Dakota – but to venture
capitalists and hedge fund managers [most often residing on/near Wall Street].
·
The employment of drones to do certain dangerous
tasks allows us greater protection of our men and women in the military – while
presenting us challenges to some of our basic values! War always involves a degree of evil – even
the so-called “justified” wars. Yet,
over centuries the conduct of wars developed a significant code for the conduct
of those wars. Enemy combatants still
maintained certain “rights” – and violations of those rights brought
consequences to those who violated them.
Our “War of Terror” however has operated – and continues to operate – in
murky gray areas vis a vis those rights.
·
The issue of providing adequate treatment for
our brothers and sisters with a mental illness has also been made more difficult
with our “good intentions” and “altruisms”. Aware of the terrible situation in
many 1950s psychiatric hospitals and aware that new medications were rapidly
being developed to offer greater hope to the mentally ill our nation passed the
Comprehensive Community Mental Health Act of 1960. The intention? – allow the mentally ill to be
discharged from the ‘snake pits’ and to seek living possibilities closer to
their families in our communities! But
too often the focus shifted to the $$$ saved by closing the hospitals and
failing to develop treatment resources in those communities. This resulted in many patients being “dumped”
from bad situation to worse.
·
And probably no issue has been more taxed with
the struggles on “good intentions” than that of “rights”! Few could/would argue with many of the
benefits inherent in the Civil Rights movement, Feminine Rights, Rights for our
LGTB brothers and sisters, Rights of the 2nd Amendment vis a vis
owning weapons, Rights of Labor, Rights of Capitalism, etc. Entire blogs could be written about the
“goods” achieved and associated with each of those struggles. Similarly, entire blogs could be written
about the negative consequences that have also resulted in/from those
struggles.
So, what ought we do? Individually and collectively we are
obligated to try to make the world better; to do our best for family and
friends; to develop proper laws and seek to obey them. Here are a few steps or lessons I believe
might be helpful.
1.
Recognize
that even my best intention will have negative consequences! I didn’t like admitting that when I was young
– and still don’t enjoy it. I would
rather see my actions as “more” good than “any” bad. But such honest admission is vital to living
in relationships with spouse, children, co-workers, community, state, nation
and world. I’m not saying one has to go
to the other extreme [we are by nature sinful] but to honestly recognize
that more of behavior is “gray” rather than “black or white”.
2.
Engage
the ‘other’ in open dialogue whenever you act “to help” the ‘other’. I recall a cartoon showing a Boy Scout
helping an older person across the street – and the older person beating on the
Scout because she hadn’t wanted to cross the street! I recall a time when my father bought my
mother a mangle iron to help her with the ironing even tho she had made it
clear she didn’t want one – and never even took the ribbon off it for almost
10 years! That dialogue with the
other has to identify whose needs are being served? What might be the negative consequences? And, are there other ways to achieve the end?
3.
Spend
honest time/effort in exploring the negative consequences [which will always be
present] so as to develop plans for minimizing/alleviating those
consequences. It’s “good” to lessen
our dependence on foreign oil and “fracking” has terrible consequences – surely
a people who could send humans to the moon could develop ways of mitigating
those negatives. It’s good to enable
more citizens to live outside psychiatric facilities but not without available/affordable
services of assistance! It’s good to
provide assistance to the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the ill – but not by
over-looking the values of self-reliance!
We can both give a person a fish AND teach that person how to fish. We can give unemployment relief AND provide
education/training for a job. It’s good
that more and more of the dangerous jobs in our society can be done with robots
– and it is evil if we do so without discerning ways to develop new jobs for
those replaced!
4.
Discern
the spiritual factors involved in all of our actions and seek meaningful ways
to discuss and ‘treat’ those. Each
week we are confronted with news re: the terrible consequences that our “wars”
are having on the men and women involved.
Most of us know that PTSD stands for even though we might not understand
it. As we strive to improve the
psychological services to help our troops, let’s not forget the spiritual
components! Our men and women go to
combat with the values we have taught them from birth: life is sacred, killing
is wrong, do not falsely accuse, everyone should have her/his day in court,
etc. And then, in this “War on Terror”
we turn their ‘values” upside down! Why
wouldn’t that be traumatic? And, why do
we think it only impinges on the men and women in the Armed Services? They went on our behalf. How do we, too, seek assistance for our
spiritual darkness?
Just some thoughts – and “thanks” to Grandma and Dr. Forell!
