Habits of the Heart Revisited
There’s a wonderful American tradition of pursuing individual success, while balancing success by serving others. That balance brings civility to society. However, lately we’ve been lacking balance, particularly in serving one another. The news offers daily evidence that something is missing or more importantly, something is moving us in the wrong direction.
Success and Happiness are Different
In 1985 Robert Bellah wrote about this balance in his best selling book, Habits of the Heart. He studied both individualism and commitment in America. Success, according to Bellah, is different than happiness and joy. The former is individualistic and comes from competition. People who win are considered successful. By contrast, joy and happiness come from serving others without counting the cost. Accordingly, when individual competition for money, jobs or votes is not balanced by service or even courtesy civility declines.
Bellah argued that in America there’s always been unresolved tension between individual pursuits (private interest) and community concern for others (common good). While society holds dear individual pursuits of success, maintaining civility and order in society requires attending to the needs of others. Bellah explained, “…in a free republic, it is the task of the citizen … to cultivate civic virtue in order to mitigate the tension and render it manageable.” Unfortunately, today the pursuit of private interest far outweighs civic virtue. So what happened?
A Recipe for Civic Virtue
Ideally, the pursuit of private interest should serve the common good and vice versa. When that happens, it cultivates civic virtue and creates societal harmony in ways that are less restrictive, more trusting and civil. That also supports the further pursuit of private interests. By contrast, private interests that ignore common good and civic virtue; create a more restrictive culture. It becomes less trusting, less civil and eventually less conducive to the further pursuit of private interests.
Said another way, violating the common good invites mistrust and resistance. That resistance comes in many forms including increased hostility, biting criticism, diminishing cooperation, increased crime, less trust and growing transaction costs. That essentially is what life is like in a police state. But is that what we want?
Common Good is Essential
These days individuals violate common good and pursue private political interests with apparent impunity. However, that’s shortsighted. Though individuals may be lauded for this, they weaken voluntary compliance with common values and invite resistance for everyone else. Witness the exponential growth in hostility of political opponents. It’s every day fare to yell, confront, denigrate and demonize people, and the media are complicit in promoting the turmoil. Police are assaulted and even killed, people are heckled, campuses erupt, buildings are destroyed and society teeters on the verge of another civil war. Consider that from 1999-2007 an annual average of 240,000 conceal and carry permits were issued. By 2016, that average had grown 7-fold to 1,730,000, in part due to growing insecurities. So how do we stop all of this and where is the common good?
The Solution is Available
First, understand where this is headed and at the point of conflict respectfully agree to disagree. Second, don’t get caught up in hype. Start listening to one another and responding in a civil manner. Third, check our motives to ensure that our private interests are balanced by serving others to uphold the common good. Consider the goodwill generated and common good served when the Taiwanese soccer players were rescued. Yet, sometimes serving can be simply extending a common courtesy. Finally, the real solution here is employing the “Golden Rule.” If we can temper our “furor” with a little grace, we’ll solve a lot of our problems.