Ethics and the American Future
Our Ethical traditions and American culture did not come easy or by chance. Understanding our American ethical origins helps us preserve who we are as a people. The individual and the concept of Liberty are the essences of the Constitution and the United States. Never had this happened in a country founded by men? When it came to the concept of individual liberty who did the founding fathers admire and influence them? Some of these people were Christians who were mostly European. They were philosophers, mathematicians, and enlightenment thinkers. David Hume and his skepticism. Jean Jacques Rouse was another. Immanuel Kant embraced both these philosophers and Immanuel Kant formulated a reasoning method for individual freedom. Men who followed it embraced and protected freedom and liberty.
How could you trust the individual with his Liberty and Justice
How could you trust the individual with all this freedom and liberty? The main idea was to formulate how you could have a set of rules on morality if you had a Country that was not based upon Religious rules. How could a new country make the individual the centerpiece of the country and not the Country itself? Liberty without rules is a very anarchist idea. This was a new idea. Our new “Nation would be the centerpiece of the individual.” A new idea.
Kant wanted an ethical system to flourish without Religion.
Kand grew up in Germany during the evolution of Martin Luther and the Challenges to the Church. He envisioned the decline in some religions and wanted to retain the ethics of the people. This was a new idea. How did it work when it never worked before in history? The idea was you could use reason to mold individual morality. Have a code that each individual would follow and logically would make sense to each citizen within the society. What made it so strong were three simple rules of reasoning. Rules that one could look at logically. You derived these ethics from Reasoning. Not from a religion. Not from a dictator. These were the first American Ethics. You could use reason to understand what the good was. We were the first country to integrate these special ideas we learned from Immanuel Kant. Kant was the inspiration behind the Bill of Rights. Put faith in the individual. If we all followed these rules then we could all self-regulate and prosper with the most amount of Freedom and Liberty.
What is the Good?
What did it mean to be a good person and loyal to an American Code of ethics? Are you loyal to the National Anthem? My mom used to love the song ‘God Bless America” A feeling deep inside her feels this type of Good. The feeling is sacred and you are part of it. Part of the Group. So that is one form of Good. We all have some ideas we share about physical characteristics like the beauty of the country. The feelings of things that bring us together Characteristics of the Country. So the Constitution is an agreement for us all to get along and what do we do when we have different ideas on how to run the Government. Do we only like parts of the Constitution that make us feel Patriotic? A feeling that is you ascribe to the document it is good. How was the Constitution agreed to?
Out Looking for America
Many things we feel are the physical Characteristics of the Country. Mountains, Lakes, Bridges, and more. For me, it was when I first saw the wheat fields of Kansas. It is Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty. I never will forget the first time I saw the Rocky Mountains pop up out of the horizon of Central Colorado while traveling west. The first time I saw and met real Cowboys eating at a Chuckwagon with cattle all around them and meeting them on the Frontal Range in Montanna. The Eastern front of Northern Montana. A place is still very very wild.
The real good is the Goodness of the People.
Besides landmarks and songs. I love the ethical grounding of the Culture of the American people. It may seem weird to some but the people of my great country exude goodness and make me proud to live among them. Yes if you are cynical you might not feel it. You might miss it. You might want to learn their origins and why our Culture is so special. Leaning it will help you as an individual to preserve your liberties. depend upon it. I shall call it The ethical. “The Good”
Americans and Liberty are good.
Never take your American liberties for granted nor the goodness of the American people. We are the only country in the World that invaded other countries and then gave them back their land and self Government. We also share our liberty around the world and for years we have been an example to the rest of the World.
Inside the modern Melting pot a perspective
My experience in Houston the new “America’s new Melting pot” helped me appreciate why we are “The Good people” New Emigrants help me appreciate and understand what we all take for granted. “The Good of the American People. ”That is the goodness of the American people. Friends from Vietnam, China, Iraq, Nigeria, and many more cultures give me insight into their ideas of America when they first move here. They open up to me and give me feedback on our virtues. They share their thoughts.
They are stuck and think we are a little crazy about “The Good” Things like volunteerism. Why do Americans help save a bird with a broken wing? Let turtles loose in the surf instead of eating them. Especially if nobody is watching, Why act good? They have a problem understanding “the Good”. Even mundane things like volunteering to plant trees at the corner park. Cleaning up the beaches on a litter drive. As time goes on they notice “the good” and soon get involved in it when their kids attend public schools, play baseball together, play soccer, or have birthdays we spend together. Yey, they might do the good because of religious reasons. They will get to heaven if they do good. That is a good Utility. A great reason.
But what if you do not have Police
But what if you don’t have cops looking at you to do good? What if you don’t believe in God? Will you be bad? America’s ethics and culture seem to solve that problem.
Their perspective fascinates me
Their perspective is fascinating because they reveal even more of the wonder as they contrast their new country with their old country. Over time I came to realize that this was the true goodness of my people and my country. “The Good”.
There is no written code to follow so we use the reasoning of being Good
It is not written into our laws. It’s not part of a pledge. This code of doing the “right thing”. You do the right thing not just to gain utility from being kind but because it is the right thing to do.
My new immigrant friends are amazed how we spend billions in the United States on people with disabilities and other similar things. We do that because it is the right thing to do. “The Good”
Many Developed nations and people have also developed “the good too”. But the United States was first because of our concept of individual liberty. We would never have freedom and Liberty if we did not have “the Good”. We have to reason that “Good” is logically the way to do things. The ethics of Kant.
But much of the the rest of world doesn’t do unrewarded deeds like the United States. But we as Americans do it. There are cultures where people are good and do good but usually, it is based on getting something in return
Should you expect something for being Good
To equate good usually from third world country in their way of life usually equate “the good” with Utility. They for the most part would never stop to clean up something that fell off a strangers car. Why? Nobody is watching them. Nobody is paying them to do it. It is not their car. Nobody is seeing them do it that will give them credit for doing it later. Being nice to perfect Strangers? Why should you be that way? They will never see you again. They for the most part qualify goodness with Utility. I will be good to someone so they will like me or then they will buy what I am selling. The motive of goodness is the sale for the most part. We do the Utility good thing too. Many of us expect something in return for being good. Many Americans lose the meaning of it all and become Utilitarianism.
Immanuel Kant influence on reason and Liberty
Many people from other countries as time goes on abandon the utilitarian ethic of doing good. They now use “reason ideas ” for doing “The Good” and join Kantian Ethics. They join the Ethics of Immanuel Kant. Many in Europe follow “the Good”. When you become a naturalized American is when they start living by this code of ethics that are so unique to American. Our Liberties depend on it. Our freedoms depend on it. Do the right thing even if no one is watching. Why? because it is the right thing to do! It is not a law written down. You just do it!
It is a unique quality this do good without reward?
So how did America develop this way of thinking of the Good?
Why have Americans been so obsessed with this doing the right thing all these years?
It is a unique quality many never think about
When the Country was formed. The Laws and Constitution were put together by a group of white Christian men. They were called the founding fathers. The founding fathers of the United States were influenced by many philosophers from the age of reason in Europe. Many of these Philosophers’ beliefs later led to us setting up codes of behavior and our own underwritten traditions as citizens as a country and are written into our constitution.
One Ethics Philosopher who comes to mind was Immanuel Kant. Kant was a German Ethics philosopher and was a proponent of the sanctity and the power of the individual. Kant was obsessed with the power of the individual. His writings greatly influenced our country’s founders.
For the first time in history, the United States formed a Government dedicated to the complete prominence the individual and Individual Rights. “The freedom for the individual”. No country before it had ever given so much power to the individual. Kant invented a code of ethics. In the code of ethics, Kant proclaimed “the good” could work with or without religion. It was derived from Reason. The more reasoned you were the more freedom and liberty you should have. It was a system in our minds.
We live the Categorical Imperative
His work “Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals”. Kant lays out one of his most important rules: The “Categorical Imperative”. This was kind of the key to our greatness and our kindness as a country. This idea would create more liberty using reason and not through laws that the State would enforce. It is all volunteer. It is a duty. You rationalized and used rational reasoning to do good. No one was telling you what to do like a law or a commandment. You reasoned it to be good and better to do that way.
Before Kant Religions dictated how to be good
Before Kant, the rules of Deontology (duty) of the individual’s conduct had always been inspired by God. We can think of that like Muslim Sharia law or the Christian Papal States. These had always been used as the basis for the code of conduct of people and their creating rules in a nation-state.
Our Constitution was a secular Document that put faith in the individual
Kant wanted to change all of that. He wanted a secular reason for being good. Kant’s: “Categorical Imperative” came from secular inspiration. He wanted a system that would coexist or replace the rules of conduct from religious sources. He wanted and believed reason could be employed to create a super informal code of conduct where liberty would flourish. It would be based on Reason and not God.
A Moral code separate but not exclusive of Religion
This inspiration by Kant enabled wild ideas of the day like Putting faith and trust in the individual and giving the individual freedoms and the idea of melding the individual with a certain code. How could you give the individual all this liberty and freedom? Will not they become like a party crowd that gets out of hand because they have all this newfound freedom? Would they get out of hand?
The “Categorical Imperative” to have a reasoned framework of duty. That was to use Reason and through Reason gain more freedom. Kant’s biggest inspiration to the Constitution was the writing of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Freedom of Speech, Freedom to assemble, Rights of the accused, and more.The sanctity and trust of the Individual. This is how
“This is the Categorical Imperative.” “Act only according to the Maxim by which at the same time will that is should become a universal law.”
Translation. Do onto others as you would have them do to you. But Kant goes beyond that. He says that you should do good for good’s sake and not think about the utility of your goodness. Don’t expect anything in return. So in an example of deciding with reason what is good. Say you want to cheat on your wife. Ok you think it is no big deal you do it and that happens it was fun.
Now use Reasoning of the “The Categorical Imperative”. If I cheat on my wife well then she should be able to cheat on me. I am doing it universally why not everyone does it. You see you think of it in universal terms. Not just from your perspective but from a perspective of “ What if we all did it”. Then what would the ramifications be of that cheating on your wife? Havoc!!!!! Why? Everyone would be cheating, not just you. So your reasoned you won’t cheat because you follow the “Categorical imperative”
Kant felt that the implementation of Liberty and the sanctity of the human being would only be achieved through Reason. Not through laws and Police forces or troops enforcing laws. We had a duty to enforce this code of ethics on our own internally.
Kant modified the imperative:
Kant”s ideas: 1) Universal Laws should be without contradiction. 2) Never use a person as a means to an end. Your Person or the other persons. 3) Must live as an individual in a world of considered universal ends with many individuals doing it. Lying is never accepted because it ruins the Trust Between People and the meaning of TRUTH for all of us.
This was to be taught to all the people not in Government but in our code of Ethics that allowed us to have more liberty. The more we all lived Kant’s ideas the more freedom we would have.
“The Good” The True meaning of America.
This is the reason I love America so much. I have traveled and lived all over this great nation. This code of ethics has been with us since the inception of our great country. This is the core reason for my patriotism. It is the innate goodness of our people starting from the Trust that the founding fathers gave us when we first formed this great republic. This goodness brings many more tears to my eyes than the Rocky Mountains ever did or Yellowstone park or the Canyons of New York City. This is why we love “The good”.
Is America in Danger of losing “The Good”
Did this 2016 presidential Election signal the end of ” The Good”. Or was it a reaction to the leadership style of Barack Obama? Smooth Calm and deliberate and sometimes absent in the face of riots and terrorist carnage?
Are we now in danger with the behavior and bizarre reasoning of Trump and his campaign? Or was this a reaction to one form of political Correctness to another form of it more bizarre and orthodox?
There is a complete breakdown of Immanuel Kant’s “Categorical Imperatives”. Trump is breaking these rules and it will have unintended consequences if all adopted that could it destroy what is the true power of the United States. “Truth,” through Reason and the sanctity of the Individual. “The Good”. If we adopt Trump’s reasoning it will destroy our moral cohesiveness and destroy the freedom of the Individual.
What is we all adopt Trump’s lack of ethics
To put it in the simplest of terms. What if everyone threw away the code of ethics of Immanuel Kant and took on the code of ethics of Donald Trump. Would there be more Liberty or less?
The answer is less. Why because Freedoms and Liberty have responsibilities.
I am not sure if many of his followers don’t realize these potential consequences to our country. They have contradictions that bother them about Trump. But they are filled with fear about terrorism and Black people rioting. Somehow they rationalize his behavior. It is his behavior that is most troubling. One could argue some of his issues might have some credence. But the price of the behavior is too high to ever negate that logic. You could argue his ideals if he had done it differently they might make some logical sense.
Without Trust, Democracy will decline. A police state will take over.
The diminishing Flowers
Think of your wanting to pick flowers in a Public Park.
You like the flowers and want them. So you pick the flowers. You get your results which are pretty flowers you bring home! But then soon everyone picks the flowers in the park too.
So you go to the park again and now there are no flowers left. There is a contradiction in Logic. Your need for the flowers: (But then you “Made all the flowers disappear”). Now. Nobody has flowers including you. Illogical (Contradiction) Now your actions destroyed the beautiful Park flowers…..Unintended consequences of something that seemed good.
A Contradiction! So it is stupid and against Kant’s rules to pick Flowers in a Public Park. So instead next time. Buy the flowers in a store instead. The park then has flowers and so do you.
So to reinforce Trump’s Ethic’s risk the whole meaning of American has to be destroyed.
Trump’s supporters think he is clever to be the first to pick the Flowers in the Park. But when everyone starts conducting themselves like Trump. It could lead to less, not more individual Freedoms. It’s not clever. It is breaking the code of conduct of the “individual” in the United States. Cracking through “The Good”. Breaking the Code.
The Ethics of America’s future we must live up to. The agreement we have among ourselves. The unwritten agreement us. Immanuel Kant’s Golden Rule. “The moral imperative”. If he acts that way then individual liberty flourishes. The Alternative to reason is selfishness and foolishness.
If we all follow Trump’s style and actions there will be no more flowers in the public Park of liberty.
Let’s hope he was just a reactionary that will believe in “The Good” as President.
Citations
“Kant Philosophical Correspondence” 1759 to 1799 Arnufl Zweig, Chicago University
“Critique of Modern Reasoning” 1757. Mary Greger
“Groundwork from the Metaphysic of morals “Ny Press 1998
“Kant and modern Ethics” Doxey, Mary Partners 1999