Quo Vadis?

Quo Vadis was one of the blockbuster movies of the 1950’s.   Its title derived from an apocryphal story told about when Saint Peter was fleeing Rome in order to avoid crucifixion.  On his way, he encountered Jesus who asked “Quo vadis?”  Where are you going?  It was then that Peter returned to meet his fate.

Today we must also ask, where are we going?  Peter was guided by his faith, but where are we to find the guideposts needed to direct our way?  As I have previously written, we are experiencing an ideological crisis.  The belief systems that once steered our course have let us down.

Actually, I have been struggling to find a way to demonstrate why relevant ideologies are vital.  These may seem to be mere “as if” stories, yet they enable us to make sense out of a world that would otherwise be too confusing to navigate.

So let me tell a story.  When I was in my early twenties, I decided it was time to learn how to drive a car.  Even though I was living in New York City, I craved greater mobility.  Nevertheless, my father refused to teach me.  He feared that this would raise his insurance premiums.

Instead I turned to my uncle Milton.  He was a bus driver and a very nice person.  Happily, he agreed to help me out.  As a consequence, I met him when he finished his route so that we could ride home together.  Then, once we arrived in Queens, he turned the wheel over to me.

Milton assumed that I knew more about driving than I did.  Perhaps I had exaggerated the skills I acquired by driving a friend’s car around a parking lot.  In any event, I was terrified when I venturing onto the Queensboro Boulevard.  At first, I did not know where to look.

This thoroughfare had three lanes in each direction, with side lanes to boot.  There were thus automobiles and trucks everywhere.  They were in front of me, behind me, and on both sides of me.  It felt as if any one of them could veer into me at any moment.

Although I managed to keep from hitting anything, my panic was evident.  This was when my uncle asked me to pull over so that he could resume control.  To this day, I remember how relieved I was.  The thought of having to endure my terror for several more miles was overwhelming.

Nowadays, of course, the situation is different.  I routinely drive on the interstates without a moment’s hesitation.  What has changed is that during the interim I accumulated hundreds of thousands of hours on the road.  As importantly, I built up a mental frame of reference in the process.

I now know that I do not have to keep track of every vehicle around me.  I have, in essence, become aware of what is normal and what is anomalous.  My attention is therefore drawn to the unusual.  I am even able to anticipate when a driver is liable to do something amiss—such as changing lanes without signaling.

A few hours driving around a parking lot could never have provided the guidance to handle I 75 where it widens to eight lanes.  By the same token, centuries of living in a preindustrial society did not furnish the insights needed to manage in a post-industrial civilization.  Countless experiences in the former are simply not applicable in the latter.

This, in fact, is the circumstance we currently find ourselves.  Our ideological frameworks developed in eras long preceding our own.  The liberal, conservative, and libertarian perspectives all evolved during periods extremely different from our own.

As a result, they often steer us wrong.  The upshot is that what we seek frequently does not bring us satisfaction.  This is one of the reasons for our present political impasse.  Voters are frustrated by broken promises.  Yet these promises are broken because those making them are following inappropriate guideposts.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University