According to Lord Kenneth Clark in his book on Civilisation (British spelling): “however solid it seems, it is actually quite fragile. It can be destroyed. What are its enemies? Well, first of all fear—fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague and famine, that make it simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planting next year’s crops.” And: “How can I define it? Well, very shortly a sense of permanence.” For: “it is the lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation.”
What then makes civilization possible? Confidence, leading to a sense of permanence to build for the future, unbound by fear. Lord Clark conceded it is difficult to define civilization, “but I think I can recognize it when I see it.”
My wife Suzanne and I could recognize it and see it looking up at the Parthenon from our hotel balcony on a trip to Athens. There the Parthenon cast the golden hue of its marble after 2500 years in the Athenian sun. It was a focus by political reformers in Athens on values they had associated with wisdom (civic virtue, law, order, justice, and shrewdness), and with Athena, their goddess of wisdom, that had put Athens on the path to democracy. By the time of the Parthenon’s builder, Pericles, Athens was in her democracy’s golden age.
How does a lack of confidence start in a democracy that Clark warns can kill civilization? It starts with demagoguery. Demagogues appeal to exaggerated fears to extol themselves (“only I can fix it”), to take the people’s power for themselves, and to banish confidence with fears. Demagoguery seeks immediate action, but leads to instability and rash, extreme solutions.
The antidote to demagoguery is democratic deliberation and debate. Let me give an example, again from ancient Athens.
The demagogue Cleon appeared before the 6,000 citizens of the Assembly in 427 BC. He had a proposal to deal with a revolt on the island of Lesbos, across the Aegean to the northeast. There was a lot of anger at their revolt. Cleon proposed: kill all the men and take all the women and children into slavery. His proposal won; the Assembly immediately dispatched a trireme with instructions for the commander at Lesbos to kill or enslave them all.
Then: second thoughts. In the words of the historian Thucydides: “the very next day a feeling of repentance came over them and they began to reflect that the design which they had formed was cruel and monstrous, to destroy a whole city instead of merely those who were guilty.” The Assembly asked Cleon to ascend the speaker’s platform again. He said: “Do not become tender-hearted at the sight of their present distress…give plain warning whoever revolts shall be punished with death.”
Another citizen, Diodotus, then spoke to the Assembly in reply: he said it was not in the true interest of Athens to punish by death the innocent with the ringleaders. Otherwise, why shouldn’t all people Athens besieged, “hold out in a siege to the last extremity, if it makes no difference whether it capitulates quickly or at its leisure?” Also, a more moderate course focused on just the ringleaders, “will be best for the future, and will cause alarm among our enemies, for he who is wise in counsel is stronger against the foe than he who recklessly rushes in with brute force.”
On a show of hands, the people of Athens then voted to send a second trireme to overtake the first with new orders. The second trireme failed to catch up, but just as the commander, “was about to execute the orders, the second put in close and prevented the destruction of the city. By just so much did Mytilene [on Lesbos] escape peril.”
It is an example where a democratic assembly by due debate and deliberation rejected a reckless, violent, and extreme solution advocated by a demagogue, and voted instead for a more reasoned, focused, and moderate action for the sake of the nation’s future.
Our President must quit chasing down undocumented workers in the fields and in the cites with brute force. There is a better way: Work with Congress to authorize funding of many more immigration judges to clear the case backlog. Find efficient ways to allow working, tax paying and law-abiding undocumented workers to become documented. Focus for deportation the real law breakers (not the simply undocumented). And focus on bipartisan, detailed solutions, not threats and fear.
A better way forward too is for the President to start respecting and sharing power equally with the co-equal branches of government, the Congress and the courts; not bypass or ignore them. It will require patience for him to follow the Constitution, sure, but that is his oath he must follow—so we can all have confidence we will keep our constitutional democracy and our civilization--to build and invest for the future.
Robert P. Wise is a Northsider.
