Ought v. Naught
Reimagining America
George Pratt Shultz lived 100 years and for 35 of those years was a leading force in the forging of America’s foreign and domestic policies. He held four different cabinet-level positions under two Republican presidents, holding a seat at the cabinet table for a dozen years from 1969 to 1989. He was on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Eisenhower, Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Secretary of the Treasury for Nixon and returned as Secretary of State for Ronald Reagan. His career spanned being an American professor, economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. As a member of the Greatest Generation of Americans, he served as a Marine Corps officer during WWII and bracketed that with degrees from Princeton and M.I.T. before entering public service. During an interview several years ago, when asked about the future of the American democratic republic, he advised never to underestimate the power of “ought.” His view was that our nation was founded as an aspirational ideal and that we have always designed our country as it ought to be, understanding that filling the gaps from here to there was what the process of democracy was all about.
My friend Tom Wohlmut is a first generation American. I am a second generation American. We met while going to high school together in Rome, Italy over fifty years ago. We share a common heritage from Eastern Europe, specifically Czechoslovakia. My grandfather left Malzenice for America in the early 1890’s to escape the famine brought on by the European potato blight. Tom’s father took his family out of the increasingly totalitarian Czechoslovak regime under the strict thumb of the Soviet sphere of control after the coup in 1948. The Wohlmut’s found their way to America via Australia and my grandfather moved deep into the finger lakes of New York. Both Tom and I lived much of our lives outside of the United States, always believing in its bright shining light of freedom and democracy. In the last seven years or so, we have both come to increasingly focus on the things in America that seem to be falling apart. We, like many Americans, feel that we are watching a noticeable erosion in our democratic principles and the dawning of stark warning signs of the emboldened totalitarianism that lurks in the shadows at all times and in most places. Tom and I both care deeply about America, but Tom’s family history is one of wariness towards the turn of governmental threats. I am no less concerned about the advent of autocracy, but I spent more than a decade pining for an American lifestyle and wanting to be an American resident, as I am now and plan yet to be.
Tom and I both feel that the dialogue around partisan politics in America is out of control. We are not alone in wondering what we, as responsible and mature citizens, can do to get our democracy back on tracks rather than sit idly by as one damaging situation after another drags its way through our fields of vision. Tom and I agree that the country does not need another voice enumerating the things that are going wrong. Tom is a video storyteller. I am a written storyteller. We have chosen to follow a guiding light from a highly respected Republican like George Schultz to highlight that labels and specific ideologies do not preclude any notions of what ought to be. Perhaps if we can gather voices and stories about what America ought to be, we can compile a manifesto for what America ought to be. We will start by delineating things that ought not be on the roster. Hence the chosen title of Ought v. Naught. It can also mean that without a vision of what ought to be, we have nothing.
It is an ambitious undertaking to seek to reimagine the most successful democratic republic in the history of mankind. But neither Rome nor America were built in a day and we both want to light at least what may be no more than one little candle in what seems like an increasingly dark time for America. We want this to be a positive and forward looking exercise that is both non-partisan and non-political, not to mention, specifically not focused on what is wrong with America since that is by its very nature where too much partisan concern is currently focused. We welcome all views from Americans and will do our best to curate them fairly to create our ultimate Ought Manifesto.
We suggest everyone start by reading or rereading our countries foundational documents in order to start gathering our ought list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers
https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/full-text
https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-1-10#s-lg-box-wrapper-25493264
We feel that the “ought” in our view originates in the heart and only partially in the brain. When we say “All men are created equal” that is a thought for sure, but does it originate in the brain or heart? In our view it originates in the heart, but to give it power, we need compelling words just as our forefathers did. It’s the words that give power to the feelings we have.
Tom, as a video storyteller, thinks that while it’s great to review the documents above, his thought is that we are more likely to find the “oughts” in many of the movies we all so love. The themes of justice, love, and kindness are all there and flow out of our deepest feelings of the heart. Film makers know how to make those feeling come alive in the experiences they portray.
We have gotten into trouble in our society when the feelings we have are only about us. Too much of today’s politics is driven by popularity and more about people wanting to feel like the outraged person at the podium. And so the politician as a symbol of similitude, becomes the shining beacon of what they say they want, which is to say that they and those listening to them don’t have everything they really want. It is a selfish approach that is a short-term outlook rather than selfless and a long-term view, making it far more of a naught than an ought.
We should not be saying “live life as if it is your last”, but rather saying “live life as if it is the last of the people you love”. And, of course, as humans amidst a sea of humanity, there are lots of people we need to love to truly optimize our own happiness, whether they are at our front gate or in seemingly distant lands.
As a sample of this idea and while staying poignantly on point, the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington done by the great Frank Capra, shows us this well. In it, Jimmy Stewart speaks to the importance of standing up for lost causes. He shows us that decency and honesty are all-important and that a single person can make a difference. Our podium will be online for maximum reach (more to come about that with the help of my Millennial son, Thomas, who embraces our mission and will translate our collective ramblings into compelling media formats) and, in so doing, seek to include all cohorts be they old or young or liberal or conservative. We therefore stand up to the “lost cause” at our nations most critical inflection point by wanting every American to reimagine what America ought to be.
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