Lesson 9: Might Makes Right
David Brooks recently wrote, “Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes might makes right.” That provides a good wrap-up for this series. I come away thinking most Americans seem to believe only one thing. Might makes right.
Over 40 years ago, in his classic After Virtue, Alastair MacIntyre foresaw this could happen. He argued that a community’s ethics depend on sharing a common story that defines what is good. When it loses its story, it loses its moral guidance.
After reading MacIntyre, I remember mentioning in a conversation that we no longer shared a common story when few people knew the Bible, Shakespeare, or Greek philosophy. The superintendent of schools disagreed, claiming democracy has always been our story, and the public schools still teach it.
Democracy might well be the only story left uniting us. Without the others offering some kind of common understanding, however, it is reduced to a political empowerment of what the greatest number of people want. Society is split into groups competing in elections for the right to impose their special interests on others. They rarely come together for education.
As we have seen repeatedly in this study, the Bible is primarily addressed to people who do not have might. God’s Word, not popular opinion, determines right, and that truth often challenges those who do have might.
At the same time, Christians find it easy to support democracy in a pluralistic culture. Our message calls for working together with people who disagree with us to build a community that cares for all. Righteousness involves love, humility, forgiveness, cooperation, sharing, and other values that consider the needs of other people. Those who are given might are to use it as servants of those with less power.
Right corrects the abuse of power. Right transforms the use of power. Democracy certainly plays that role when it limits the power any have over others. That is just the opposite of what we are seeing in the current administration.
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Thanks for this entire series, Fritz. It’s helped to get me through this mess thus far.