More or Less Empathy in Government. That’s the Moral Question After Parkland et al
Morality is about well-being, your own well-being and the well-being of others. Morality is thus about politics. According to our mentor and cognitive scientist, George Lakoff, all politics is about morality and can be described using a family metaphor for the nation.
Today is the anniversary of the Parkland shooting. More and more young people are demanding the application of nurturant parent morality, the morality of our founders, when it comes to promoting gun health over gun violence. Nurturant parent morality expands empathy in government to make government of, by, and for people more effective AND to make progress in expanding freedom from fear.
Empathy is the soul of a nation. Whether you call it a democracy or a republic, government of, by, and for people is a government of care. Dr. Lakoff encourages progressives to actually use the values language of empathy and responsibility to others. Before entering into a discussion of issues like gun health, immigration gratitude, and preventing corrupt corporate takeover of government, called shutdowns, we are called to frame the debate from empathy and responsibility to strengthen government of, by, and for people.
Strict father morality limits empathy in government. Sometimes called conservative, it conserves the worst values of the monarchy our founders rejected. Our current debates are all about WHICH morality Americans will exercise going forward. Will it be a caring body politic, or a selling body politic.
As I write this, the New York Times reports that TRAOTUS — the Russian Asset of the United States — is declaring a state of emergency so he can build a #WallOfHate. Progressives need to be using values language and comparing and contrasting nurturant parent versus strict father morality on a regular basis. And they can use our founding freedom charters to help illustrate the values of empathy and responsibility to others.
Concerning immigration and shutdowns of our government the early colonist was subjected to the same treatment. They hated the treatment and thought their strict father monarch, King George of England, was a tyrant. Our colonial representatives and signers of the US Declaration of Independence declared in 1776 a free people deserve empathic and responsible leaders. They wrote,
“A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
You remember this document. It’s the one that starts,
“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another . . .
You remember. It goes on to say these more familiar words in its very long second sentence,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …”
I was reminded of this document this week because Empathy Surplus Project has welcomed a new person to our board who is organizing a new Caring Citizens’ Congress in Athens, Ohio. When we induct a new member, we recite the 27 repeated injuries and usurpations perpetrated on the colonists by their terrible King. We recite them like a litany and start with the following:
“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Now, I’m skipping to the 2nd injury and usurpation on shutdowns, which ALWAYS benefit corrupt corporations, and therefore should really be called corrupt corporate takeovers of government. It sounds like what TRAOTUS is doing to us.
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”
I’m skipping to the 5th injury and usurpation on corrupt corporate takeovers of government. It sounds like what TRAOTUS is doing to us.
“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”
I’m skipping to the 7th injury and usurpation on immigration gratitude. It sounds like what TRAOTUS is doing to us.
“He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
I’m skipping to the 23rd injury and usurpation on yet another corrupt corporate takeover of government. It sounds like what TRAOTUS is doing to us.
“He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.”
I’m skipping to the 27th injury and usurpation on immigration gratitude and only citing the first section. It sounds like what TRAOTUS is doing to us.
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us . . . “
So governing without empathy or responsibility to others is not new in our American history. We said no to monarchs and tyrants. We said no to corrupt corporations, called plantations in colonial days that used slave labor. We later fought a civil war to end slave labor and reject corrupt corporations. We can say no to TRAOTUS and those in the GOP that support him.
Progressive elected officials and candidates must make these moral choices clear. True patriots want the nurturant parent morality of government of, by, and for the people, which exercises checks and balances with co-equal branches of government. We don’t want #WallsOfHate.
True patriot progressives reject the strict father morality of monarchs, dictators, oligarchs, and corrupt corporations. We don’t want walls of hate.
I and my Empathy Surplus Project board are also excited that we have three other caring citizens going through a process of credentialing to organize communities of practice in Lompoc, California; Newtown, Pennsylvania; and Greenville, South Carolina.
We now have two communities of practice and guests are welcome. They gather on Mondays and Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. via video chat.
Caring citizen leadership takes practice of changing our language. Since all ideas are physical, we can’t change our behavior without new language. So we practice, AND discuss how we’ve done reframing our conversations in our spheres of influence.
A caring body politic is effective at how to compare and contrast the two major moral world views that have ALWAYS been in America — empathy or no empathy in government — that’s our moral choice.
We are non-partisan, AND, we know that right now that although there are pockets of non-empathic government in the Democratic Party, the bulk of our empathy deficit disorder is in the GOP. We don’t want #WallsOfHate. We don’t want a Russian asset anywhere in our government.
