Reader’s Letters

Americans used to promote the welfare of others

Any serious student of the democracies of the past, including our own once-consensual system of government, gets the distinct impression that this political system is all about citizens promoting the welfare of others. Usually that includes one’s spouse, friends, children and grandchildren, co-workers and colleagues, neighbors, and all those who have incorporated themselves into the same town or city by moving there or growing up there.

Democracy can even be shown to be very conscious of having good relations with other towns, counties, states, and countries on its borders. The most famous philosophers of democracy also claim that one must even love one’s enemies, which means to pay respect to them and promote their welfare in spite of the difficulty that presents. All of this points to our western Bible as being a political science text as much as a religion text, because it outlines the history of a once democratic Hebrew culture whose citizens eventually became self-centered, greedy, and warlike, like Americans have become today.

Americans today are nothing if not self-promoting at our very core. We are also ardent promoters of our partisan teammates. Furthermore, we attempt to discredit every other living being who is not a member of our team.

A recent example of individual and group promotion that ran entirely amok was the WNBA All-Star game. Individual athletes came out onto a high stage accompanied by music, swirling lights, and professional dancers, each one flashing individualized signs of personal dominance and coolness. This is not democratic “girl-power” folks. It is “girls-with-athletic-skills-entertaining-light-headed-fans-who-should-be-about-the-business-of building-real-community-with-their-spare-time-instead-of-amassing-more-billions-for-sports-owners-power.”

President Trump is the self-promoter-in-chief of the entire nation. He sets the example of putting personal, social, economic and partisan political interests above all other concerns. He is also the denigrator-in-chief of the entire nation. He can’t open his mouth without promoting his own greatness or tearing down the goodness or greatness of others.

Self-promotion is not really a partisan matter. Democrats are as thoroughly engaged in it as Republicans are. Self-promotion is an alternative way of life to promotion of the welfare of others. Politicians in general are very good at self-promotion. Parents, churches and schools try to promote the welfare of others but clearly all have failed miserably to get the job done. The greedy, the self-important, and the warlike among us roll like a tsunami over everybody else.

America’s entertainment culture has permeated journalism, sports, politics, economics, and social life so thoroughly that it has everyone convinced that catering to the personal enjoyment of individuals and featuring the self-importance of individuals is our highest priority, rather than educating people in how to serve the welfare of others. When we focus on self rather than others, those with the biggest egos, the biggest bank accounts, and the most luxurious homes come out on top every time. When we focus on community power rather than individual power, we make the society stronger rather than weaker.

Focusing on ourselves and our partisan buddies leads us to believe that folks on the other side of the aisle are responsible for all of society’s ills and therefore have totally corrupted society. It is our job to uncorrupt it by making war against our neighbors. We do this by following our self-interested partisan leaders wherever they tell us to go, which is usually not a good place.

Another example of the distorting effects of current self-interest politics is the story undergirding the MAGA emphasis on natalism. MAGA says we need more children but doesn’t explain why. JD Vance and Elon Musk speak about this “moral” responsibility a lot.

The requirements of democracy go a long way to explaining why it is moral. Having children is one of the surest ways to advance the maturity of the citizenry, because it virtually requires citizens to put aside their own needs and minister instead to the needs of helpless young children.

Raising children today is looked at by MAGA and the new aristocratic class more cynically in terms of providing more workers for the billionaire class to exploit so it can “make America productive again.” Alternatively, raising children in a democratic environment actually greatly increases the maturity, skills, hearts, and minds of young adult parents. It puts them in a better position to become enlightened citizen leaders in the community, of whom there are many needed.

Kimball Shinkoskey

1306 S. 1100 W.

Woods Cross, Utah 84087