As an academic and a keen observer of the newly emerging market
economy, Smith opposed mercantalism and he chafed at the heavy hand that
the ruling British aristocracy, whose wealth was based upon ownership
of land, continued to exercise in political and economic affairs.
However, as one steeped in tradition of communitarianism, were he alive
today, Smith would not know what to make of the likes of Michelle
Bachmann, Rand Paul and the others who apotheosize the marketplace and
deny the right of government, as an agent of the public interest, to
restrain the excesses of unbridled capitalism.
In his Theory of Moral Sentiments,
Adam Smith described what we today would call empathy: "As we have no
immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the
manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves
should feel in the like situation. Though our brother is on the rack, as
long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us
of what he suffers. They never did, and never can, carry us beyond our
own person, and it is by the imagination only that we can form any
conception of what are his sensations. Neither can that faculty help us
to this any other way, than by representing to us what would be our own,
if we were in his case. It is the impressions of our own senses only,
not those of his, which our imaginations copy. By the imagination, we
place ourselves in his situation."
In past century, the work
of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg have contributed to our
understanding of the importance of empathy. Based upon Piaget's
modeling, Kohlberg developed a theory of moral development that
identified six stages of moral reasoning through which each of us, as a
result of discussion and dialogue with one another after consideration
of a variety of moral dilemmas, and subsequent reflection, is able to
progress.
For Kohlberg, the pre-conventional level of
moral reasoning is most common in children, although his studies
documented that many adults fail to progress beyond this level of
reasoning in which the morality of any particular action is judged by
its direct consequences, "Don't do X because you will be punished."
Kohlberg's writings and studies conducted by adherents to his school of
psychology have also documented that a substantial number of adults have
not evolved in their moral reasoning beyond Stage 2, which is
epitomized by pure ego-driven, self-interest, "What's in it for me?"
Kohlberg contended that as adults progressed beyond an under-standing
of morality rooted in preoccupation with the satisfaction of one's own
needs, adults begin to comprehend broader principles based upon an
understanding of the importance of reciprocity and our mutual
obligations to one another.
At Stage Five, Kohlberg argued,
"Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights
and standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the
whole society. There is a clear awareness of the relativism of personal
values and opinions and a corresponding emphasis upon procedural rules
for reaching consensus. Aside from what is constitutionally and
democratically agreed upon, right action is a matter of personal values
and opinions. The result is an emphasis upon the 'legal point of view,'
but with an additional emphasis upon the possibility of changing the law
in terms of rational considerations of social utility (rather than
freezing it in terms of stage 4 'law and order'). Outside the legal
realm, free agreement, and contract, is the binding element of
obligation. The "official" morality of the American government and
Constitution is at this stage."
Finally, at Stage Six,
Kant's categorical imperative becomes the overriding, operative
principle. As Kohlberg defined that stage, "Right is defined by the
decision of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles
that appeal to logical comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency.
These principles are abstract and ethical (the Golden Rule, the
categorical imperative); they are not concrete moral rules like the Ten
Commandments. At heart, these are universal principles of justice, of
the reciprocity, and equality of the human rights, and of respect for
the dignity of human beings as individual persons. It is also at this
stage that the full implications of empathy, as human quality, manifest
themselves."
Adam Smith's recognition of the importance of
empathy and Kohlberg's subsequent contributions to our understanding of
moral reasoning provide valuable insights that elucidate much of what's
wrong with what passes for discussions about American politics and
economics today. Hope Yen, in article distributed by the Associated
Press today (" Data show widening future struggle for Americans, 4 out
of 5 have had problems"), reports that "four out of five US adults
struggle with joblessness, near poverty, or reliance on welfare for at
least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security
and an elusive American dream."
Yen traces the cause of
this phenomenon to "an increasingly globalized economy, the widening gap
between rich and poor, and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs are
the reasons for the trend, according to a recent Associated Press survey
and other economic reports."
Yen's article chronicles
economic hardship that has risen among whites and their increasing
pessimism "about their families' economic futures has climbed to the
highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63
percent of whites called the economy 'poor.'" She quotes one Irene
Salyers,age 52,''I think it's going to get worse."' Ms. Salyers is
described as a resident of Buchanan County, Va., located in a declining
coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Yen reports
that Ms. Salyers currently helps to run a fruit and vegetable stand
with her current boyfriend, but, because the business doesn't generate
much income, they live mostly off of government disability checks.
Ms. Yen also quotes William Julius Wilson, of Harvard University, "It's
time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest
disparities . . . are increasingly due to economic class position."
Professor Wilson's concern is echoed by Paul Krugman in today's edition of The New York Times.
In an op ed column entitled "Stranded by Sprawl," Krugman notes that "
Detroit is a symbol of the old economy's decline. It's not just the
derelict center; the metropolitan area as a whole lost population
between 2000 and 2010, the worst performance among major cities.
Atlanta, by contrast, epitomizes the rise of the Sun Belt; it gained
more than a million people over the same period, roughly matching the
performance of Dallas and Houston without the extra boost from oil" but
that "in one important respect booming Atlanta looks just like Detroit
gone bust: both are places where the American dream seems to be dying,
where the children of the poor have great difficulty climbing the
economic ladder. In fact, upward social mobility - the extent to which
children manage to achieve a higher socioeconomic status than their
parents - is even lower in Atlanta than it is in Detroit."
Krugman observes that "Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger," and he
describes a new study from the Equality of Opportunity Project that
confirms previous studies of social mobility - "all such studies find
that these days America, which still thinks of itself as the land of
opportunity, actually has more of an inherited class system than other
advanced nations."
The existence and tolerance of widespread,
increasing misery and rising economic inequality throughout the United
States has been propelled by the lingering effects of the Great
Recession, the loss of trillions of dollars of investments by Americans
during the accompanying stock market meltdown, the housing foreclosure
crisis, pervasive unemployment and underemployment among minorities,
young men and women, and adults between the ages of 45 and 65 who have
now been become "road kill." The existence of these phenomena must be
viewed as profound moral issues that cry out for redress.
How, other than as a most virulent form of cultural sociopathy - as an
utter lack of empathy - can one explain the cruel, insensitive,
counter-productive political, social and economic policies that are now
insanely peddled by the GOP and its supporters as antidotes to what they
characterize as moral rot and a lack of personal initiative by those
who have been disadvantaged by economic circumstances largely beyond
their control?
But what about the rest of us? How does one
explain our insouciance in the face of so much suffering? Aren't our
fates and those of our children inextricably linked to the fates of the
millions of our neighbors now mired in economic hardship and despair?
Isn't our failure to collecively demand a response by our government
that is proportionate to the magnitude of the problems evidence that we,
too, lack the moral fiber necessary to define ourselves as moral agents
who are commited to social justice?
Portia's entreaty in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
is well worth pondering for those who are uncertain whether empathy and
its next of kin - mercy - are affectations or essential traits that
define and reward us as fully developed, moral beings:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
