The Embarrassment of Morality

by Rebecca Bynum (May 2011)

Our politicians no longer feel obliged to add a moral dimension to their arguments the way they once did, even on the gravest subjects of war and peace. Think of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and how each side quoted easily and readily from scripture in order to illustrate the indispensible moral dimension of their cause. Today, it is very difficult to find a political argument that goes beyond bare utility. Of course, one still hears appeals to compassion for the less fortunate and the like, but the age when making a moral argument in the political sphere was required appears to be quite past.

Hinduism: Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he becomes. (Bhagavad Gita)

Taoism: True goodness is like water in that it blesses everything and harms nothing. And like water, true goodness seeks the lowest places, even those levels which others avoid, and that is because it is akin to the Tao. (Tao Te Ching 81)

[1] Bush, Laura, Spoken from the Heart (New York: Scribner, 2010) pg. 286
[2] Ibid pg. 384

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