Jeremy L. Berg

PEACE, PROGRESS & PRAGMATISM

The Humanistic Spirit of Optimism. Based upon a linear concept of time, the past, present, and future of world history is thought to be moving forward in a straight line, being bumped along by the principle of cause and effect. This historical trajectory is accompanied by a strong strand of humanistic optimism and progressivistic rigor born during the Enlightenment. The good life is thought to be just around the corner and all we need to secure worldwide peace and prosperity is the next great political platform, a more effective social program, a better economic plan, etc.

Walter Russell Mead, one compelling interpreter of American foreign policy, offers one such human program. As James A. Gilchrist describes it:

Power, Terror, Peace, and War describes what Mead calls the “American project,” the grand strategic vision that, if not always cogently stated, appears to shape our nation’s agenda in the world. This project, “to protect our own domestic security while building a peaceful world order of democratic states linked by common values and sharing a common prosperity,” is deeply rooted in American history.

In this system, the struggle for justice—in this case, securing “our own domestic security and building a peaceful world order”—takes on a simplistic tone. In Yoder’s critique:

Whether a give action is right or not seems to be inseparable from the question of what effects it will cause. Thus part if not all of social concern has to do with looking for the right “handle” by which one can “get a hold on” the course of history and move it in the right direction.

History’s graveyard of ideologies is full of many such dead ‘handles’ that have run their course and proved ultimately futile in this endeavor—e.g. Marxism, Feudalism, etc. Other ‘handles’, such as Mead’s “American Project,” are alive and well today, worshiped by millions daily at political and economic ‘temples’ worldwide (e.g. Wall Street, Washington D. C., United Nations, etc).

Somewhat disconcerting is the vast amount of confidence and power this philosophical system places in the hands of human agents to wisely and justly direct the course of history. If history teaches us one indisputable lesson it is that human beings have proved utterly incapable of securing a just society in a peaceable world by their own initiatives.

Utilitarianism as a Guiding Principle. Another key value of this system is the unquestioned utilitarian maxim that the “end justifies the means.” ‘Just War’ proponents argue that under certain circumstances violence is a moral means toward achieving a particular end—e.g., preventing the genocide of millions by violently overthrowing an evil regime. This line of thinking is well founded and rooted deeply within the Judea-Christian tradition—or at least according to its interpreters. All recognize that justice and universal shalom are essential characteristics of God’s intended world, and all present actions/circumstances to the contrary seem to be aberrations from God’s good will. Justice and peace, then, are held up with the highest esteem and placed at the pinnacle of human longing and striving.

Unfortunately, what happens when these two most deeply held values are tested on the war-torn roads of life, they quickly become polarized and placed into opposition with one another. Syndicated talk-show host and columnist, Dennis Prager, cites an ancient Jewish legend that says, “When God created the human being, there was a celestial battle between Justice and Peace. The angels told God that among human beings, these qualities would not be able to live together.” History seems to agree.

Those who place highest value on justice are willing to use violence (sacrificing peaceful non-violence) when it is threatened to safeguard it or reestablish it. Those who place highest value on peace and non-violence are reluctant to go to war—even for just causes. As indispensable as justice and peace are to a world of suffering and injustice, are these the highest goods worth striving for or dedicating our lives to?