In an interview recently Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York remarked that the pro-lifers who visit his office once a year are the only lobbyists he ever meets who want nothing for
themselves but instead take a selfless moral stance. Then he added, "And I always vote against them."

One of the troubling realities about America is that, as a society, we seem less and less willing to think about larger issues, more and more absorbed by what might affect us directly.

Abortion is one example. Depending on the question, more than half the voters think it is wrong, but relatively few allow that conviction to be a deciding influence on their vote. Foreign policy is
another. It has long been a political truism that, except in times of war, no candidate wins or loses an election on the basis of how America should act towards China or Iraq. A third is the environment.  Some people are alarmed at the apparent destruction of the environment, and they urge us to mend our ways. But there is little evidence that this plea moves more than a small number of voters.

In the recent elections conventional wisdom has it that the voters told the politicians to forget about the White House scandals and get back to the important issues, usually defined as Social Security,
education, and medical care. Those three have in common that they all involve government money coming to various groups of voters. Thus they are defined as "important." The question whether a
particular individual is morally fit to lead the country, of what standards of behavior are suitable for the president, is deemed a "distraction" because it impinges on few of us in a direct way.

But the classic idea of citizenship, the one the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution, requires precisely that the voters sometimes be disinterested, that is, that they not look
at everything through the prism of their own immediate welfare but have concern for the overall health of the country. That seems now to be almost wholly lacking. In effect people say that they don't care what kind of man sits in the White House, how America relates to the rest of the world, or even whether the environment is deteriorating, so long as they themselves prosper with the help
of the government.

Apart from crass self-interest — government as Santa Claus — there is a narrow provincialism here, an unwillingness to raise one's gaze much beyond one's own neighborhood. No one takes
responsibility for the overall health of society, and those who call attention to larger issues are dismissed as "extremist."

Rather shockingly, we have reached the point where someone in public life who simply demands more for his or her group is respected, while those who urge us to look to larger matters are
regarded as dangerous. The inquiry into the White House scandals is unpopular with many people not because they approve of the president's behavior but because they sincerely cannot see why
they should worry about something which will not affect the way they themselves live. It is for the same reason that the pro-life movement seems to have diminishing success.

There is a religious version of this, in which Catholics are in effect becoming congregationalists.  They cease either to know or to care much about the rich theology and spirituality of the Church and focus all their attention on their parish. If they find one which is congenial, that is all that matters, and they have little sense of being connected to the Church universal, either in its present incarnation in all the cultures of the world nor through its two millenia of history.

The attitudes of the "me generation" permit people to be genuinely devoted to their families and their immediate communities, but not to much beyond those. It has fostered, both in church and secular
society, an inward-looking attitude which in the end impoverishes our understanding of our place in the world.

Dr. Hitchcock is professor of history at St. Louis University.
 

Send a letter (preferable) or an email to your  Senators and representatives using the Directory at the Congressional Email Directory.  Point and click here to surf to their web site.

Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article was published in the Arlington Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 47;
dated Nov. 26, 1998, on page 4.
E-mail: letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565

A note from the Web Master:

It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion.  Let us not forget that ordinary everyday Abortion is also murder.  We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method.  Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods.  We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method.  The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill."  A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.  Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs.  Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,  to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
(Apparently they do not respond to email therefore it is better to write or telephone.)

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