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“What is the best defense against violence?” polymath entrepreneur Chris Rufer once asked me.
Though I’m not a gun enthusiast, my thoughts automatically turned to Messrs Smith and Wesson. In the U.S., after all, the Second Amendment is designed to encode our right to self-defense. But then I figured that answer must be too obvious.
“The police?” I replied with a chuckle.
“Morality,” said Rufer. “The best defense against violence is to minimize the number of people in the world willing to use it.”
For a long time, that answer felt off somehow. Some people are just cruel or predatorial in a way that morality won’t change. But I have come around to Rufer’s perspective. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be prepared to defend themselves. Instead, we should give the idea of preemptive moral training due consideration. We have work to do to the extent there is something to it.
But let me not get ahead of myself.
The Moral Vacuum
I have argued elsewhere that most Americans have turned to The Church of State. And politics is where morality goes to die.
In other words, people are turning to politics as a kind of ersatz religion. They seem to think that identification with some party platform or platitudinous yard sign is enough. But the virtues and values of politics — to the extent these exist — are anemic at best, deadly at worst.
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Instead of practicing compassion, politics prompts us to outsource our compassion to distant capitals.
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Instead of being personally responsible, politics asks that we ship off our responsibilities to algorithmic tax and transfer schemes.
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Instead of figuring out how to improve our lives, politics invites us to belly up to a trough of stolen goods.
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Instead of facing our fears and addressing our community’s needs, we imagine that faceless bureaucracies are somehow protective daddies and caring mommies.
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Instead of setting up good institutions for production and trade, politicians horse-trade with other people’s money.
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Instead of creating value or sustainably serving others, politics legitimizes the expropriation of the productive classes.
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Instead of doing good in person, politics prompts us to seem good online.
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Instead of joining with our neighbors in solidarity or community, politics pushes people to engage in partisan warfare.
Whatever your partisan affiliation, politics offers little moral good, which is why most people consider it a necessary evil. However, we have to consider the possibility that it’s just plain evil.
Persuasion or Compulsion Redux
We’ve argued that if you want someone to act, there are only two ways: persuasion and compulsion. At some level, then, persuasion is the language of morality, and compulsion is the language of politics.
“You ought to do X” is designed to persuade you. “You must do X, or else…” is a threat of violence, even if it’s encoded.
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