Here’s another shortish book I read recently, not a memoir but a book at the intersection of politics, morality, and human nature, which is itself another theme of my reading the past two or three years. It’s by Robert Reich, about whom I’ve written before, e.g. here. I read this one on the plane during our last trip to Austin, in early June, and revisited it yesterday to write up these notes.
By “common good” Reich means the set of shared values of society, what we owe together as citizens of the same society, the norms we voluntarily abide by. Reich is quick to caution that this has nothing to do with communism or socialism, or about political parties. It’s something that seems to have been lost, he says, so in this book he explains what it is, what happened to erode it, and what might be done to restore it.
(Knopf, Feb. 2018, 193pp including 9p of recommended reading and a discussion guide.) (I have the 7th printing, July 2020)
That said, the book is an excellent description of how attitudes have changed over the past few decades, but, to my analytic way of mind, there’s not much in the way of explanation, beyond the plain facts of what has happened. What larger social or technological trends triggered the waves of selfishness that have eroded our basic institutions? Nor does he have much in the way of specific suggestions for restoring this common good. That is, he describes what should be done, but not how we might go about it.
But I’ll briefly summarize.
Part I: What Is the Common Good?
He discusses what it isn’t, using that pharma guy, Martin Shkreli, as an example. Shkreli raised the price of a certain drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, just because he could, regardless of any consequences. He was out only for himself, and smirked at his critics. Like certain politicians we could think of.
The idea of the common good was once well understood: “we the people,” FDR’s four freedoms, civil rights, public education. Page 13:
Most people are hardwired for some degree of cooperation with and compassion toward others. Human beings would not have survived on earth to this point were we entirely selfish.
Some people don’t believe in such a common good, perhaps because it might be hijacked by dictators. Ayn Rand was one such: Man exists only for his own sake; only family and friends are community. She and later Robert Nozick put forth this conservative, even libertarian philosophy now embraced by Trump, Tiller, Pompeo, Ryan.
Author thinks Rand dangerously wrong. Without a common good, there would be no civilization. The “free market” is no solution –that’s just a human creation, a set of rules created by the government. Truth is a common good. That’s why tyrants attack truth-tellers, the scientists and the press.
When people say America is losing its national identity, this is what they mean, these ideals. (Reich notes some may think national identity is about being white, or Christian, and I’m sure some people do; but he’s looking for a higher ground.) There’s no zero-sum game between America and the rest of the world.
[[ Now already you can see how Reich’s description of things fits neatly into the paradigm I’ve been formulating about tribal morality and cosmopolitan morality. The former is only family and friends, selfishness. The latter is a common good that requires the people take responsibility for their roles in society, for the benefit of all. And obvious political examples present themselves, though Reich tries not to make it too obvious. ]]
Reich address the origins of the common good, citing historical precedents, even to the Bible and before. Though aside from the quote above, he doesn’t explore any evolutionary rationale for why humanity might have benefited from evolving cooperation, and implementing a common good.
Part II: What Happened to the Common Good?
There have always been cheaters, and the first to break the rules has an enormous advantage. One result is that laws become more complex…
Reich provides a long list of breakdowns that have occurred since the mid-1960s, pp52-63, from the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, Newt Gingrich, the Clinton impeachment, the war against terror, Bernie Madoff, the financial crisis of 2008-2010, all the way to Wells Fargo in 2017. They’re all about people seeking personal gains at the expense of the common good. (And before those were corporate claims about DDT, tobacco, seat belts, etc.) [[ Again, Reich avoids making the observation that the majority of these breakdowns were brought about by conservatives, and/or corporate interest, since they’re the ones who tend to be selfish, even as they dismiss liberals and other critics as suckers. ]]
The meat of the book, perhaps, is the exploration of three broad structural breakdowns behind all those events. First, Whatever-it-takes-to-win politics. Nixon, Ford, Gingrich: better to shut the government down than to compromise with liberals. And Trump made everything worse. (Reich adds in the liberal obstruction of Robert Bork, on procedural grounds, if even arguably liberals did so precisely to avoid the damage to the common good that Bork would have implemented.) Second: Whatever-it-takes-to-maximize-profits. Corporate raiders, risky bonds, the abandonment of the idea that corporations have any responsibility to society. This profit-over-all is now infecting other areas, like health care. Third: Whatever-it-takes-to-rig-the-economy, by which Reich means how in 1971 Lewis Powell targeted consumer and environmental groups as being anti-business, and later, big money poured into politics to favor big corporations and the wealthy. (Again, it’s Republicans who do this.)
And so inequality has worsened and the middle class is shrinking. Fewer people trust the government, the media, banks, big business. People now “join” groups to make deals for things too expensive to purchase alone. Homeowners associations. Conservatives, predictably, accuse people of not working hard enough, some even condemning failing communities to die. And blame scapegoats, especially immigrants.
Part III: Can the Common Good Be Restored?
Reich has ideas, but mostly idealistic ones. Leadership must entail trusteeship, with goals aside from just making money. He cites examples of John McCain and Jeff Flake, as Republicans who stood up to extremism on their side. But then came Trump, who insulted judges, praised “both sides,” and so on.
There a nice chapter about “Honor and Shame,” and here Reich evokes some basics about how human cultures work, all the way back to tribes. He gives some interesting example of how we honor people who don’t need honors, e.g. “lifetime achievement awards,” or honor people who advance good causes never mind how they actually made their money (Harvey Weinstein). Why are all politicians, even the crooked ones, referred to as “the honorable”?
Shame works too. McCarthy was shamed. A few have shamed Trump, or tried. Shame can go wrong, e.g. via cyberbullying. And shaming with no consequence is pointless, e.g. how no one responsible for the 2008 financial crisis went to jail. And conservatives are too obsessed with private morality, which shouldn’t be anyone’s business.
Reich urges us to be responsible in identifying and sharing truth, and not spreading lies or fake news. That’s a matter of personal responsibility. People on the wrong side of this stifles criticism and accuse bad news of being fake news (e.g. Trump accusing polls that show him losing as being rigged, as he just did again this week).
Finally, revive civic education (what in my day was called “civics” class). Teach people how the government works, what the rule of law is about. Teach critical thinking, and how to be skeptical but not cynical.
There are plenty of good things happening in the world every day that we simply don’t hear about. [[ I think this is an even more important point than he makes it. ]] Become active in your community, in politics. Act civilly to those with whom you disagree. It may take a while, but it will be worth it.
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Again, this book is valuable for reminding us that there are values that make a society, or a civilization, that in recent decades we’ve let let selfish people undermine. If only Reich had more specific ideas about how to fix these things. In one sense, the answer is easy: everyone who votes, or worse doesn’t vote, is responsible. So don’t vote for cheaters, for con men, for those who deny the truth, for those who deny the common good that binds our civilization together. Vote for those who will work to build the society you would like to live in.
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Finally, I’ve noted articles on Reich’s Substack Site many times. On that site — scroll down, look right — he has a set of 10 posts from late last year that update and comment upon the chapters in this book. I haven’t read them yet.
