Are We Fans, Friends, or Foils?
Phronesis—Getting What We Deserve
“They don’t deserve you.” That is what I would like to tell some of my smart, well-intentioned friends who are all-in with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. These days, we all have to be careful about whom we identify with—and with whom people identify us. Likewise, I try to caution my smart, well-intentioned friends on the right of the political spectrum (if these terms have meaning anymore) who are all-in with public figures, slogans, stances, or theories that can be summed up in a word or two.
My concern is not primarily about policy stances taken, so long as various positions can be hashed out through constitutional procedures, by benevolent people who seek truth and accept reasonable compromises. In these cases, I love to see the traditions of political courtship bring together leaders and followers who, in a sense, represent one another—and respect one another—as advocates of specific answers to America’s challenges. My friends, holding diverse opinions, generally have participated in structures of behavior like this.
But nowadays, specific problems and responses that lead to a logical sorting of “publics” who share views with elected officials have been replaced by vaguely outlined figures on the political stage.
I guess these new performers on a new stage are leaders and followers, but I fear they are now mostly followers. They are identified, or labeled, as types of people who represent blobs of coalesced opinions, usually oversimplified and often basically emotional. Somehow, they seem driven by forces external to the electoral process—advocacy groups, lobbyists, big-money donors, online communities (sic), news media, and others seeking wealth and power.
These puppet-masters create dramas which are full of sound and fury, sometimes even dangerous in their urge to grab attention for crusades and slogans. The dramas signify nothing because few widespread problems are truly addressed and few issues qua issues are knowledgeably, wisely resolved.
That is why I advise my spectrum of friends we must be sure-footed and skeptical in selecting anyone with whom to side, any symbolic champion whose shallowness allows the “other side” to devise a completely different symbol. These days, our super-problems make us cry out for super-heroes, but, as we should expect, these heroes are comic-book cut-outs and caricatures who speak and act at the extremes. We might be able to like many of them as human beings, and we are right to support their arguments and actions when we see them doing good.
But, sad to say, “leaders” who have bought into politics-as-theater, entertainment-as-news, and symbolism-as-substance have weakened themselves, their “supporters,” and this society which craves deliberation and truth. Even the well-intentioned slip into actions that fall short of grass-roots standards and values. They can harm their followers, separating them from friends and otherwise-natural allies as everyone drifts into the currents of mutual suspicion.
The spotlight in the public square must go not to demigods and idealogues, but to ideas, facts, and the common good. If attention follows a super-hero’s every move, as these characters alternately win and lose, act like sages and fools, vanquish villains and fall from grace, we may affirm ourselves as fan groups. But the civil society, containing within it so many resources for fruitful deliberation, suffers diminishment and distraction, losing its clout as either audiences or activists. We lack a sustained, penetrating focus on challenges and solutions in which leaders and followers can participate fully. Various “media” become not only the message, but the masters.
If we go all-in for someone, we participate in the democracy-as-drama stagecraft that John M. Phalen foresaw in his 1977 book, Mediaworld. We are not merely indifferent spectators, but, thanks to the ongoing metastasis of our mediaworld today, we can come under attack and face temptation to help advance society’s polarization.
As TV host Jack Paar is said to have quipped about leaders in 1966, “Don’t vote, it only encourages them.”
U.S. Attorney General William Barr told Howard Kurtz, in a recent Media Buzz interview, how a government official mindful of civic duty and the rule of law can be condemned by pundits one day and later embraced as a truth-teller by the Congressional January 6 Committee. Kurtz asked this well-intentioned problem-solver if he wished he had gone public sooner with his criticism of President Trump’s resistance to the 2020 election results. Barr said, “You don’t go out and say, I think the President acts like a jerk a lot of the time.”
I want to befriend my friends on both sides of the aisle—actually scattered now that external big-money influencers told us “everyone into the political pool!”. I do not want anyone to give up on voting or practicing phronesis to help resolve society’s crises with integrity. But we must be careful, identifying authentic action items hidden in politicians’ emotional baggage, and then fostering prudent judgments detached from hyperbolic performances.
Will our leaders save their followers, or vice versa? I would like to join my friends of all stripes in trying the latter approach—before our skepticism decays into cynicism. Our first statement to all aspiring leaders must be, “We deserve better.”
“Pandevotional” Prayer / Pandemic Reflection
The Spitzer Center for Visionary Leadership offers programs to Catholic organizations that help them develop mission statements and strategies to strengthen their cultures of service. Criteria for pursuing excellence in these organizations are based on the “four levels of happiness” schema taught by Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, renowned for his scholarship and leadership and well-known for his EWTN series, Father Spitzer’s Universe.
Wise leadership is key in achieving what Spitzer calls the third level of happiness in an organization or, by extension, a nation facing a crisis, such as a pandemic. At the third level, people pursue happiness not by focusing on their own needs or egos, but by “making an optimal positive difference with my life” and giving of ourselves to others.
As St. Augustine says, “The friendship which draws human beings together in a tender bond is sweet to us because out of many minds it forges a unity.”
The Spitzer Center website says this:
“Acknowledging there has only been one person born as a perfect leader, we help others continually refine their leadership skills and abilities. To accomplish all we are called for, leaders must clarify a common vision, inspire others to that vision, and guide others as a beacon of hope. We demonstrate how to create opportunities for personal growth in others entrusted to them in their mission.”
The prayer that accompanies this mission of happiness is this:
Father, help us to see the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise, make us one in mind and heart.”
Let me add a prayer for leaders and followers facing any crisis:
“Lord, help us guard against thoughts that would cause us to feel alienated or separated from others. Help us ensure that our leadership is centered on the good of others, not the isolated self. Help us look for, reflect, and nurture the good news we see in others.”
Chewing on This—A Story I Heard
A 2013 article from Scientific American made a helpful, “level-three” point about the power of prayer, normally a subject related to Father Spitzer’s fourth level of happiness—a giving of oneself to God, not only to other human beings.
A study in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology assessed why prayer, even among non-believers, might increase one’s ability to resist temptation with self-control. As taught in the Lord’s Prayer, we turn to God for assistance against weakness of will.
Researchers reported that they built upon a former finding—that individuals needing encouragement against a failure of their inner strength (“effects of cognitive depletion”) could be “primed” with “words related to religion (eg God, divine).” Participants in the study took a “stroop test” in which visual clues made it more difficult to give a correct answer about an image they saw on a screen.
Before taking the test, all participants underwent an experience of “emotion suppression,” where their cognition was depleted by having to hold in their laughter while watching funny scenes. Then, some participants were told to spend five minutes thinking about a subject of their choosing. Others were told to pray about a subject for the same amount of time.
“Participants who were asked to pray … showed significantly better performance on the stroop test after emotion suppression…. And this effect held regardless of whether participants identified as religious,” according to Scientific American.
Why? “People interpret prayer as a social interaction with God, and social interactions are what give us the cognitive resources necessary to avoid temptation. Past research has found that even brief social interactions with others can promote cognitive functioning, and the same seems to hold true for brief social interactions with deities.”
The researchers acknowledged that the prayer for God’s help might itself increase a person’s resilience, but there were no statistics to confirm this faith-based conclusion.
However, I take two conclusions away from this experiment which span both the third and fourth levels of happiness as taught by Spitzer.
First, social interaction—reaching out and interacting with others, rather than “staying in our own heads”—does indeed make us more level-headed. It’s a good tip for countering the effects of our polarized culture.
Second, it can be destructive to all concerned when others express, and we accede to, a mocking rejection of well-wishes—as when one says, “I don’t need your thoughts and prayers!” Mentioning God and advocating the power of prayer, which at least can raise one’s cognition to a higher level of awareness, are gifts of evangelization and encouragement that at least can elevate consciousness—even among people who don’t think they need those gifts.
That’s the Spirit—An Experience of God
It’s not often that a saint makes you laugh. But St. Thomas More, the patron of politicians and lawyers, had this effect when I went looking for prayers appropriate to wise leadership.
Alas, I found no prayers that were exactly on the mark at the Daily Prayers website. But one jumped out at me as a reminder that Thomas More, a faith-filled master of phronesis who suffered greatly for his pursuit of truth in the service of Church and country, even unto martyrdom, also had the gift of wit. We can acknowledge that a sense of humor is a powerful tool for leading, transcending self-centeredness, and bringing resilience and happiness to the world.
Here is his “Prayer for Good Humor”:
Grant me O Lord, good digestion,
and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and
the necessary good humour to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows
to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things
back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom,
grumbles, sighs, and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that
obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me O Lord, a good sense of humour,
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke
to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.
I will remember that phrase about the “obstructing thing called I.” And the desire “to put things back in their place” reminds me of someone’s remark which I will elevate to a maxim: “To be Catholic is to conserve.”
More power to you!
Just Kidding—Some Witty Thing Waiting to be Used
(Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said on his old TV show: “Humor means for us the ability to see through things…. A person lacks a sense of humor if he cannot see through things.” For one gifted with humor, “the words he hears and the things he sees tell him about something else…. The world is full of that mystery.”)
A priest, a minister, and a rabbit went up to a bartender. The priest said, “I’m celebrating, please give me a beer.” The minister said, “I’m exhausted, just give me a coffee.” The rabbit said, “I’ve got a typo. Please take away my t.”
Image from ClipSafari collection of Creative Commons designs.