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Unethical Unrealism

Author:		Stephen Waters
Posted:		11/30/06; 3:48:54 PM
Topic:		Unethical Unrealism
Msg #:		616 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next:		612/618
Reads:		9353

NPR broadcast an interview "Authors Urge 'Ethical Realism' in Foreign Policy. I nearly hurled, listening to the two authors. Recovering, I wrote this to "Morning Edition":

UPDATE: Perhaps a better title for their book is "Ethical Nihilism." Nihilism is, according to some web definitions, "the belief that there is no universal truth or underlying reality that undergirds moral values" or "a philosophy that denies the existence of any basis for knowledge or truth." Heh!

UPDATE II: Now Unethical Nihilism is a more complete review of the book in question.

- - - -

I bought "Ethical Realism" after the NPR interview to discover if it was as dangerously misdirected a book as it sounds. It is. The book is toxic, promoting ethics that aren't realistic, realism that isn't ethical, and practices that put society at risk.

The authors trash current American policy as "based on idealism and moral imperatives," only because they want to substitute their own shallow idealism and moral imperatives. They invoke morality at every turn, recalling Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation, "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our silver."

For core teachings the authors advocate "prudence, patriotism, responsibility, study, humility," and -- in double quotes to set it apart -- "'decent respect'" of the views and interests of other nations." Puleeze! The "views and interests" of a bully on a playground are no substitute for recognizing bullying for what it is, labeling it, calling on other players to stand up against it, and taking names if they don't.

Absurdly, the authors invoke "humility" using the Alcoholics Anonymous Prayer, an equivalence that reduces humility to a euphemism for moral relativism. They can't see how humility, well-defined, really is the cornerstone for responsible individuals, cultures, and stable society. It also turns out to be a good "friend of foe" detector.

• For an individual, humility is the wisdom achieved when one recognizes humans plan the future using a mental map of reality that personal experience shows is never as accurate as reality itself. Sometimes people think they are right when they are not. Others help us learn.
• For one culture of individuals working in common, humility appears as processes of governance that both allow continuous peaceful change and also value open communication. For instance, democracy is valuable not because "majority rules," but because it codifies humility. It institutionalizes the understanding that there may be a better way of doing things; and that free speech allows any one voice can suggest that better way.
• For society, which is made up of cultures gathering together into the community of the whole, the authors' presumptions simply fall apart because they depend on traditions of factions, religions, and nations that can't compel civil behavior because they depend on personal beliefs others may not share. It turns out the only underlying value upon which stable society can be built is humility, because invariably it can be deduced by different individuals from personal experience even across cultures.

The authors of "Ethical Realism" poison the well as only pseudo-intellectuals can, invoking all the right words all the wrong ways, demonstrating you don't need to know the meaning of words to throw them around. What a shame these misguided souls published a book that buries both "ethical" and "realism" alongside "gay," "liberal," and conservative" in the graveyard of misspent words.

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