Sign Me Up

A book that shaped my mistrust not only of the Vietnam War in particular but the United States government in general was Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, a novel about the Air Force during World War II. I’m sure it was no accident that the Vietnam conflict was getting into full swing when it was published in the 1960’s.  I’m constantly amazed how current events manage to awaken my memories of the book.

Now here comes a flurry of demands for athletes to stand during the National Anthem. To kneel, remain seated, or hide out in the locker room is labeled by many as un-American.

In Catch 22 Captain Black is passed over for promotion, and in retaliation plans the Glorious Loyalty Oath Campaign demanding that the men of the bomber squadron sign more and more loyalty oaths before they can do their work. And taking it up a notch he insists that they not only sign oaths, but recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the National Anthem before they can do anything, including eat their meals. The whole farce is finally concluded when Major ________ de Coverly returns from Rome, sees the long lines of singing and signing men in the mess hall, and demands, “Gimme eat!”

For me, this whole anthem business is misguided. Somehow it has been connected with respect for the flag, a symbol that has a multitude of meanings for those who do, or don’t, revere it. I am deeply appreciative of the sacrifices so many have made for freedom. I am also aware of the many who have sacrificed for more power, more money, or for nothing. The danger resides in having enthusiasm drift into flag (or national) idolatry.  Biblically that’s a risky road. There is a difference between having an appreciation for one’s freedom and granting Congress, the President, the military, or the police carte blanche when it comes to employing force. There is an even greater danger when one applauds everything the government has done in the past, regardless of how greedy or craven.

Jesus and the Prophets were closely attuned to caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, and protecting strangers in their midst.  My assumption is that this included immigrants. They were remarkably indifferent to or even critical of nationalism and, for that matter, capitalism. But if we are really fortunate maybe someone will come up with a rule about applauding profit motives – and we can sing songs about it.

Resistance and the Bandits

When I was recently asked, “How do you join the resistance?” I had to interpret the question. What I think was meant is, how do you join the resistance movement against the Trump administration?  While I have never been politically active, I can relate to many of the issues raised by those who are extremely uncomfortable with the actions of this president. His insistence on limiting government controls on business, along with abandoning the public school system, trashing the environment, cutting financial support for the poor, and pressing for a “whites only” society in America are appalling to me. Plus I think he’s a bully.

That being said, I am not a protest marcher. Nor am I a big fan of Hillary Clinton, who is just too glib for me.  And I‘m not convinced that large gatherings do anything more than reassure the people who gather that they aren’t alone. So from one perspective, I don’t really want join the political resistance movement. The need to join the broader resistance against greedy self-centeredness, however, seems pretty straightforward to me. I join the resistance by being committed to a set of values. As Timothy McCarthy put it,   “Values are essential, not only to resistance, but to social change. We need to be able to say what’s wrong and we also need to be able to say what we would want to be right and how we might get there.”

What I want to be right is my posture toward others – being unwilling to do things at their expense in order to have an advantage over them for myself. Nor do I want to participate in or applaud the actions of those who take that course. As to how we might get there, it has to do with an awareness of one’s values and actions. And it would be easy to get caught up in unimportant particulars. As Carlo Capolla wrote, “From action or inaction each one of us derives a gain or a loss and at the same time one causes a gain to someone else.” It’s impossible to keep an accounting of everything we do and say. We probably get to social change by focusing on the major things, not the insignificant ones. Capolla also wrote that “always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.” [1]  Which is pretty much beside the point.

More to the point is that when one person takes an action by which he makes a gain causing another person a loss, he has acted as a bandit. The perfect bandit is one who robs you without causing you any extra loss or harm. He steals $50 and you lose $50.  But there are few perfect bandits. Imperfect bandits are those whose gains result in fewer or more losses to others. A leader who deports 100 innocent people so he can gain the power to deport another hundred people, or so he or she can feel important,  is an imperfect bandit. And then there are the stupid people who insist on causing harm to other people without deriving any gain. Drunk drivers who kill others are at the top of the list. I haven’t decided whether many of our political leaders are bandits or just stupid, but I don’t want to end up in either camp.

 

1. Cipolla, Anthony, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. See http://www.mulino.it/ebook .

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