A Plea for Unity

Today, the United States is oft said to be lacking in unity among its people. In his seminal work, After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre argues that we have utterly misunderstood the ancient concepts of virtue and moral goodness. His contention is that we’ve gone so far off field that we’ve rendered ourselves nearly incapable of recovering these notions with their original meaning intact. As a result, our understanding of the moral and political aspects of human nature and society are sorely deficient.

Among many other reasons, one factor leading to our present condition is an over-emphasis on individual autonomy. I believe that this analysis by MacIntyre can also be employed to at least partially explain the social tension and disunity the United States is presently grappling with, and a possible solution.

The Social Context of Autonomy

I do not claim that individual autonomy per se is detrimental to the unity of a society. On the contrary, I think one of the great achievements of the late medieval/renaissance and early modern periods was to forcefully defend the idea that each human person has inviolable worth and cannot merely be discarded. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States enshrine such concepts as foundational principles of the republic.

The problem is when an emphasis on individual autonomy is not coupled with a proper understanding of the reasonable limits that ought to be placed on individual autonomy and the shared bonds which make such autonomy possible. An individual cannot thrive entirely devoid of any other person or social context. We cannot be born, reared, and grow to maturity without the love, friendship, and support of family, friends, teachers etc. We can become autonomous precisely because of the social context within which we live, and our autonomy is fully realized within such a context.

Ancient Confirmation

This is why Aristotle insists that humans are “political animals.”[i] Plato also follows this line of reasoning in The Republic. He argues that if one person were tasked with completing all of the activities required for human flourishing, then flourishing would be out of reach. No one can teach themselves math, philosophy, biology, foreign languages, make their own clothes, build and fix their own cars, and all of the other tasks that make life possible. But, if there is a community of people who each contribute to the whole through individualized tasks, then everyone would be able to benefit, and the entire community would flourish. Therefore, individual autonomy is socially conditioned and implies obligations on the part of the individual and society.

Our Present Lack of Unity

As we have seen, individual autonomy is characterized by a delicate balance between the individual and the community. As the ancients would contend, this balance is or aught to be largely governed by reason. Our ability to reason is why we can attain autonomy and form complex social communities that other animals cannot. It is also a vital link between ourselves and other autonomous individuals and the community as a whole. This is because reason is dispassionate and the means by which we can engage in objective discussion, analysis, and investigation. It is due to reason that we can recognize the worth of individuals and the obligation to treat them with respect.

However, we are not only creatures of reason, but we are also creature of emotion. And when individual autonomy is stripped from its societal context, reason no longer becomes the central means by which autonomous individuals navigate their relationships with others and the society at large. In this dynamic the autonomous self is not seen as a person within a societal context. He is seen as a person over and against such a context. Therefore, any societal shift away from the individual’s liking is not seen as a reasonable consequence and expectation to be tolerated from time to time in a cohesive society which undergirds individual autonomy. It is seen as an affront to the individual and an erosion of autonomy.

Lost Concepts

In our age of social media, numerous news outlets of varying degrees of accuracy, objectivity, quality, hyper-partisanship and politicization have devolved into the second dynamic above. We no longer see things in terms of the society at large. We see society and others as a hindrance to our own individual happiness. Our social context is no longer the foundation and circumstance which is conducive to autonomy. Rather, it is the vehicle by which we achieve our autonomy and therefore we cannot tolerate when society embraces something not to our liking, as it is seen as the only means by which to secure our individual freedom.

As MacIntyre argued with moral goodness and virtue, I hope you can see now my contention that we no longer have a proper understanding of autonomy, freedom, society etc.  And because of this we have descended into disunity.

A Way Towards Unity?

Christ tells us that Heaven is a Kingdom, but it is not a kingdom of this world. However, our actions in this world are crucially important. And our actions cannot be inwardly directed. Christ calls us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Mat. 5 12 – 15). We cannot do that unless we go out into the world. But we also cannot do that by navigating the world from the standpoint of our subjective feelings. We must recognize the objective worth and dignity of our neighbors. Because when we reach out to our neighbor in this way we are also doing it to Him.

In short, the way to reestablish unity in our society is to see other individual autonomous persons as our neighbors. By doing this we no longer see society as a vehicle of our own autonomy and emotional validation. We see it as the place where we can help our neighbors and ourselves. And we put it in its proper context. It is not an end in itself. But, rather, the context within which we can grow, develop our autonomy, and hopefully see that everlasting society together. It is not easy and it will not come without struggle. But the cost of disunity is too high and the missed opportunity to help  our neighbor is too tragic to continue to allow.

[i] That is to say social and relational animals.