Walter Lippmann, "A Preface to Morals"
Warning � This is going to ramble for a bit.
Though I suppose you could make that argument for any of these entries...
This took a little longer to finish because frankly, I�m a little sick of reading. I finished 50 pages of this book and then on Friday I decided I was going to play video games all day. I restarted all the levels on �The Sims� to prepare for an all-day geek session.
The Sims is an interesting case, because while you do get sucked into the game, there�s a point you eventually reach where you simply don�t care anymore. Most people know about the game, but for those who don�t, allow me a few words.
Basically, the game�s concept is being in control of a simulated life. You make your character go to work and then buy things for their house to make them happier. Which makes them work harder. So they can buy more coke.
Anyway, the game is kind of insidious, because the only way you can make the character truly happy is to purchase things. What a thing to teach the youth of today, huh? But I�m able to get past that little moral quandary, and I�ve put in dozen of hours building my character.
But there�s a point where your character is as good as his job will allow him to be. You�ve reached the top of your form. You�re making the highest wages that you possibly can. And so the only thing left to do is get married and start a family.
Once you do that there really isn�t much else to do, and the game gets boring.
Kind of like real life, I suppose.
Anyway, this book follows along the same lines. Lippman�s central point (to dumb it down a little) is that people, once faced with �success�, become complacent and no longer have the need for religion. This would seem to be fairly standard, but he worries about where the hoi polloi will get their morality.
I suppose this seemed like a fairly shocking thesis in 1929, but now I�m reading it and the point seems mute. I remember about five years ago, coming across a bunch of bible thumpers that hung out in front of the clubs on First Street in Downtown San Jose. I came home one night barely able to speak after yelling myself hoarse at these people, saying they were scared little monkeys shaking their fists at the sky.
The way I saw it, religion has always been used to explain that which was unexplainable. The scared monkeys point at the sky and say, �Ahhh! A big ball of flame is moving across the horizon! What is it?� Then somebody declared that ball of fire was pulled across the sky by A GOD in a chariot, and everybody felt better.
Later, after science discredited the God theory and explained what the sun actually was, the process was repeated every time there was something unexplained. So the only thing left is what happens when we die. The scared monkeys say we go to heaven to live happily amongst the other monkeys, but only if we�re �good� (meaning well behaved) on earth. But they held a trump card � this was an action that placed its worth on faith � something science couldn�t disprove.
It�s the idea behind being a moral person in order to receive your reward later that held its audience, and to an extent, still does. To be honest, I�d be more scared if half of these moral guardians weren�t bound by their Christian law not to kill me. But while science has not totally disproved the faith issue, many people no longer have the faith they used to. So what law do they ascribe to, if not God�s law? And where will they get these laws from?
Those who cling to outdated dogma fail to see how the world has changed, such as the old Kosher law that said an animal must be alive and moving before it is killed and eaten. This made sense in olden times� the law was put forward to keep people from eating the carcass of a cow found on the side of the road. But now, with factory farming, we don�t need to worry about this anymore. (Instead we have a whole plethora of things to worry about. Read Upton Sinclair�s �The Jungle� if you want a hint.)
As Lippmann puts it, �The trouble with the moralists is in the moralists themselves: they have failed to understand their times.�
The way I see it, the Ten Commandments are not prescribed laws. It�s a nice guideline on how to live (though we can probably skip things like keeping the Sabbath holy, and worshipping of false gods. Somebody should also remind me about the one about coveting thy neighbor�s wife).
Lippman worries we will forget these �rules� without the guide of religion. I don�t really think that holds water, though I have the benefit of 60 years of hindsight since this was written. I feel people are still as moral as before, but with the benefit of doing it in order to try and be good, not for some supposed reward dangled like a carrot on a stick.
But then again, perhaps the church has just shifted. Like �The Sims,� which does not have the option to have the character go to church on Sunday (in fact, they are expected to work seven days a week. Can anybody say conditioning?), perhaps the goal now is just to have a good job and buy stuff.
Either way, it looks like I�m going to hell.
