A Nation of Monks?

Not long after he posted his ninety-five theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, Martin Luther began writing about how society should be reformed.  One of the subjects he addressed was marriage, but he did so in a very idealistic way.

In his book The Reformation, Dairmaid MacCullough off-handedly remarks that this was because Luther was, at the time, a monk who had no personal experience with marriage.  What then is Barack Obama’s excuse?  He has been in the White House for nearly six years.  Why hasn’t he learned the ways of the wicked world?

Leon Panetta is perplexed as to why the president has not handled our foreign policy more realistically.  He believes that Obama is both smart and courageous, yet has not dealt with the threat of radical Islam firmly or decisively.  Why is this so?

There are many reasons, but one is that our chief executive is a born-again idealist.  He has the heart, if not the mind, of an eternal adolescent.  Although no longer a community organizer by occupation, he remains one by emotional commitment.

Consider the fight against ISIS.  Our commander-in-chief would like a totally antiseptic war.  It would be one in which none of our soldiers was injured.  Not a single one would be shot at because none would have boots on the ground.  With respect to those in the sky, they would be in-and-out so quickly that the enemy could not touch them.

As for civilian casualties, they would be reduced to zero by rules of engagement so restrictive that only the occasional tank caught on open ground would be in danger.  This sort of rinky-dink operation would go on for years until the caliphate laughed itself to death.

Now I understand why students at Harvard believe that the United States is more of a threat to world peace than ISIS.  They are young and inexperienced.  Although they are convinced that they understand how things work, they know and have witnessed far less than they imagine.

But the president of the United States?  His generals have explained what needs to be done if our forces are to prevail.  Why won’t he listen?  The only thing that makes sense is that he doesn’t want to win militarily.

And why doesn’t he?  Because he thinks we don’t deserve to win.  For him, if we are not the Great Satan, we are at least the Great Despoiler.  We mess up whatever we arrogantly touch; hence the world would be a better place if we minded our own business.

Those Harvard students assume they are enlightened because they realize that George Washington did not cut down the cherry tree.  They assume this awareness makes them sophisticated.

Unfortunately they do not know how much they do not know.  Yes, history, including American history, is strewn with untoward events.  Countless bad things have happened.  Nonetheless many of these are deemed immoral because we are measuring them by an idealistic yardstick.

Thus, most marriages would look like disasters if we expected them to exhibit eternal harmony.  In fact, many are very good—considering that the spouses are human.  The United States is likewise a wonderful country given that it is inhabited and governed by humans.  Our history is one of improvements, not of decline.

For Barack Obama, however, this is insufficient.  His hoped to change us into a fairytale land of complete equality and everlasting peace.  We would lead by example rather than impose our parochial values by military might.

Obama’s allies, and there remain tens of millions of them, are as militantly naïve.  They too hope that if we sing Kumbaya in unison, the sun will break through the clouds and the doves will fly overhead.

Still, those of us who have not taken the tonsure have a right to be skeptical.  We may not be perfect beings, but at least we know enough to realize that idealism has its limitations.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University