It’s hard to believe, but it’s been more than a month since the Communications Network Conference, and I’m still checking off the mental to-do list of deep thoughts with which I wanted to engage. This last one wasn’t even part of the conference, but something I found during my morning trawl through the blogs.
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a professor of philosophy at Princeton, interested in ethics as they are applied in our modern world. The question he poses in his latest book, and in a Washington Post op ed that I read during the conference, is a simple one: what will our grandchildren condemn us for?
This is a subject that I’ve given some thought to over the years, wondering how our understanding of what’s just and right changes over time, and what the terms of debate will be in a hundred years. I have a hunch that future generations will not take kindly to my fondness for hamburgers, for example.
I found Anthony’s anwers to this question compelling, as is his logic for determining which of our (many) failings our progeny are likely to look back on and shudder.
He lays out three criteria for making the decision: first, that the arguments on either side of a debate are familiar; second, that the defenders of a custom rely more on an appeal to tradition (“That’s the way it’s always been”) than moral arguments; and finally, that the supporters of a wrong engage in a willful blindness about the true costs of the practice.
Anthony identifies four aspects of our modern American society that he thinks fit the bill: our prison-industrial complex; our industrial meat system; our treatment of our elderly; and our degradation of the natural environment.
Each of these surely represent a major failing on our part, of course, and I might add to them two others: marriage inequality and our treatment of immigrants. The arguments against the former are based almost exclusively on an appeal to ancient prejudices; those against reform of our broken immigration system rely on a willful ignorance about the economics of our construction industry and agricultural system.
I’ve had the honor of working with groups that I believe are on the right side of history such as Just Detention International, which fights to end sexual abuse in prison, and Welcoming America, which attempts to forge bonds between U.S.-born populations and the immigrants who have joined their communities. Increasingly, climate change seems to me a defining issue of our times, particularly as its contours become clearer and its impact seem certain to fall hardest on countries least able to deal with it.
There’s a danger with this kind of thought experiment, of course, that we argue backwards towards a condemnation of those practices we find personally abhorrent. Several conservative commentators have taken Anthony to task for precisely that failing, while proposing their own, quite different, set of practices sure to horrify future generations.
Still, it’s still an important exercise in my book, particularly for those of us whose work touches so directly on issues of social change.
Where should we be spending our time?
Comments
What’s interesting is how ethics always has to become political and polarized. Where should we be spending our time? Ask 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers, and most of the answers will deal with something personal to the person you asked. Perhaps the biggest thing we’ll be condemned for is being so myopic. Great questions, anyway.
In awe of that answer! Rlaeyl cool!
What will our grandchildren condemn us for?
The ability to fix things ourselves
A lack of concentration
The art of conversation
History repeating itself
U2 still on tour
That is not all.
Hank.
Good post, Heath. And yet, as much as I hate to say it, I find myself agreeing with the conservative commentators. This is simply an exercise in saying, “Here’s what I think our biggest challenges are today.” There can’t be any agreement on what we’ll be condemned for in the future, just as there isn’t universal agreement on what we condemn our own grandparents for.
History is written by the winners. What we’re really saying is that if we lose the fights we’re engaged in today, then we will be seen as heroes by a few and as being wrong by most others. Do we look back at those who fought against the repeal of prohibition and say, “Gosh, I wish they would have fought harder.”?
Instead, we simply look at the chain of events that brought us to where we are today. We understand that one thing leads to another. We don’t blame the past. We interpret it. And then we decide what to do next.
I partially agree with you, Zach. I don’t think presently there could be a universal agreement on what our current problems are today and that history is written by the winners. However, I do think there are some universal things that current society does condemn our predecessors for, like slavery and racial injustices as just quick examples.
I personally think that in 20 or so years, our children/grandchildren will be very much judgmental of those who are bigoted against the LGBTQ community and immigrants, like how today people are generally disapproving of those who are/were racial bigots and those who are religiously intolerant.
To comment on the post though, I personally think that our education system is extremely out of touch with global standards and if we don’t fix it soon our children/grandchildren will be either 1) unable to critically analyze the past, and/ or 2) worrying about basic needs rather than social justices because our public school systems didn’t adequately prepare children to be global competitors for several generations and the economy has crumbled. (A little exaggerated, yes, but it could happen.)
Zach is a cynic. I’m with you, Heath. We must constantly be asking ourselves these questions. To the indelible list already created I would add abuse of children. Unlike animal cruelty, which, sadly, not everyone agrees is wrong, child abuse goes on despite our collective agreement that it should stop. The question of why moves us from ethics into the pathology of societies, a post for someone more educated than I.
Thanks very much for taking the time to comment, everyone. It’s a nice reminder that I’m not just writing this for myself.
I definitely think myopia is something that they’ll condemn us for, if only because it’s something we could condemn our grandparents for. I’m sure that even when they were on the right side of history, they’d look at the fights we’re having now and believe that progressives had gone to far. It’s always hard to see beyond one’s limited horizons.
And Zach, I totally get why you’re leery of the whole exercise, but I still think it has value. If only in getting me to think about the clients I’m taking on, and whether my time would be better spent elsewhere.
A world of inequality and non-regulation capitalism will be our gift to the next generation. They will be paying the cost of bank bailouts which I doubt they will thank us for. Nor will they appreciate that we have not learned our lesson.
Oh, and U2 still touring.