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Wednesday
While I don’t think requiring civics in grade school is the magic cure-all for our fractured society, it’s useful from time to time to remind ourselves of our foundational values. Jonathan Swift provides us with a useful summation in Book II of Gulliver’s Travels.
Given that Swift’s work is a satire—one of the world’s greatest—it’s surprising to extract anything from Gulliver’s Travels other than instances of humans acting up. There’s a point in Book II, however, where Gulliver sets forth a vision of how society’s leaders should behave.
Swift uses various satiric personae in his book to take down his targets. In Book I Gulliver is a gullible giant who takes the words of the small-minded Lilliputians at face value, in Book IV he is a crazed misanthrope who sees the worst in everybody. In Book II, however, he is a fervent patriot who sees his own country as superior to everyone else. It takes a large-minded giant to see through his boasts.
Nevertheless, his boasts give us a good sense of what we should demand of our leaders, even while making allowances that no one can achieve perfection, that we all fall short. Here’s Gulliver:
I then spoke at large upon the constitution of an English parliament; partly made up of an illustrious body called the House of Peers; persons of the noblest blood, and of the most ancient and ample patrimonies. I described that extraordinary care always taken of their education in arts and arms, to qualify them for being counsellors both to the king and kingdom; to have a share in the legislature; to be members of the highest court of judicature, whence there can be no appeal; and to be champions always ready for the defense of their prince and country, by their valor, conduct, and fidelity. That these were the ornament and bulwark of the kingdom, worthy followers of their most renowned ancestors, whose honor had been the reward of their virtue, from which their posterity were never once known to degenerate. To these were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title of bishops, whose peculiar business is to take care of religion, and of those who instruct the people therein. These were searched and sought out through the whole nation, by the prince and his wisest counsellors, among such of the priesthood as were most deservedly distinguished by the sanctity of their lives, and the depth of their erudition; who were indeed the spiritual fathers of the clergy and the people.
That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly called the House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen, freely picked and culled out by the people themselves, for their great abilities and love of their country, to represent the wisdom of the whole nation. And that these two bodies made up the most august assembly in Europe; to whom, in conjunction with the prince, the whole legislature is committed.
I then descended to the courts of justice; over which the judges, those venerable sages and interpreters of the law, presided, for determining the disputed rights and properties of men, as well as for the punishment of vice and protection of innocence. I mentioned the prudent management of our treasury; the valor and achievements of our forces, by sea and land. I computed the number of our people, by reckoning how many millions there might be of each religious sect, or political party among us. I did not omit even our sports and pastimes, or any other particular which I thought might redound to the honor of my country. And I finished all with a brief historical account of affairs and events in England for about a hundred years past.
The giant king, after taking notes as he listens carefully, punctures all of Gulliver’s claims in ways that you can imagine. In fact, by the end of his interview, he concludes,
I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It does not appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valor; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counselors for their wisdom….[B]y what I have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
Gulliver will come to this same conclusion in Book IV.
But as Swift sees it, utter cynicism about human beings is no more accurate than blinkered optimism. (He counters Gulliver’s misanthropy at the end of book by giving us Pedro de Mendez, the benevolent Portuguese sea captain who goes out of his way to support Gulliver.) Why I focus on Gulliver’s paean to his country’s institutions in today’s essay is because sometimes we need reminding of what they are capable. Politicians can be broadminded and put their country first, judges can be fair, those in charge of our country’s finances can be trustworthy.
The 17th century French moralist François de la Rochefoucauld famously wrote that hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue. If hypocrites believe they must pretend to be virtuous, at least they acknowledge virtue to be important. I worry that Trump has taught the GOP that it’s no longer necessary to be defensively hypocritical. You say whatever you must say and do whatever you must do to gain power, with any adherence to higher values seen as a sucker’s game. In Book II, Gulliver still thinks that human beings have potential.
By Book IV, he is so disgusted with human beings that he is using human skin to fashion shoes and sails. Then he feels bad when the Houyhnhnms see him as little different from other human beings (“But I’m not like them!” he essentially protests) and drive him from their shore. Now there’s a lesson for Trump supporters who think that Trumpism will only hurt their enemies.
For those who haven’t given up, Gulliver’s description of a principled society is a lodestar that can guide our way.
