It seems ironic, I suppose that while I am sitting alone and reading that I tend to ponder a lot about the larger issues of solitude and isolation that threaten our society and many others. In many areas of life there is a need for a balance between contrary tendencies, a balance that is not simply a compromise between two extremes, but a dynamic balance that requires us to throw our weight in different directions depending on the threats and dangers that we face. At times, for example, the threat of anarchy and disunity are so great that we must through our weight towards against those trends, even if it means working with those we may not necessarily trust because of our own personalities and experiences, even if they share significant areas of commonality. At other times, the threat of abuse of authority or tyranny may be so great that in order to seek the well-being of our institutions and societies and civilizations that we must throw our efforts towards liberty, even if it forces risks and dangers on us for being seen as rebellious and insubordinate because of our questioning of the motives and behaviors of those in authority.

Our desire to maintain balance may lead us into behavior that is seen as a bit contradictory. All too often we have extremes in our own nature that lead us to see some dangers and threats far more easily than others. Because of our lives and experiences, we may fear anarchy, and the loss of authority and unity more than we fear the dangers of consolidation. We may fear domination by businesses because of their rapacious exploitation of the world and the people in it, or we may fear governments for their abuses in the name of the people, their tendency to be corrupt and bureaucratic, and for their potential abuse of power to seek to control the lives and property of the citizens under their jurisdiction. We may fear the ignorance of the masses and their tendency to seek populist heroes whose illegal behavior nonetheless serves to counter the influences of corrupt and selfish elites, or we may fear the rise and entrenchment of cultural, intellectual, business, and political elites who do not feel the need to be accountable for their actions to the common herd. Wherever we turn, the pessimistic tenor of our times leads us to be suspicious and fearful of others and their motives, as we tend to assume that people will exploit whomever they can and use their God-given abilities to gratify their selfish lusts, whatever they may be, at every opportunity.

In order for institutions, societies, and civilizations to endure, they need to be ruled by those who value the service of others more than their own self-gratification, and who are able to wield power and influence for the best interests of those who may not know or be able to act in their self-interest without condescension or arrogance or disrespect for others. In short, considerable virtue and humility are necessary for the successful discharging of the responsibilities and duties of authority in an atmosphere of mistrust where the very people one is serving and helping may not understand or trust and may actively attack those who are looking out for their well-being, safety, and best interests. Without trust, it is impossible for people to discharge these duties with any sort of pleasure, and yet for our institutions to thrive, we need people who are willing to suffer the slings and arrows of calumny, libel, and slander and who retain their love and respect for those who hate them and oppose them irrationally and blindly and harshly at every turn anyway.

Yet we mistrust those who possess such skills and integrity, or might be able to develop them, because we prefer those who flatter us with their lips even if their hearts are far from us. We prefer those smooth-talking demagogues who feign to represent the most reprehensible aspects of our nature, gratifying our selfish and immoral wishes while wishing to restrain our enemies while freeing us to do what we please, acting as our panderers and fluffers rather than as statesmen restraining the baser aspects of our nature and helping provide us with leadership that is more noble and honorable than we may deserve. Since we mistrust all claims to virtue and honor as cloaking the basest vice, we end up with corrupt leadership whom we despise but whom we keep in power because we do not trust the alternative. Better the devil we know than the uncertainty of seeking to support those who might be virtuous or developing the virtue and competence to administer our institutions ourselves for uncertain gain and with the certainty of vicious and deeply personal attacks from rivals and enemies, along with the hostile suspicion of those who think no one capable of virtue in these difficult and wicked times.

It is difficult to look at the state of our institutions in our nation and around the world without succumbing to despair. When we look at the corruption of wealthy and aristocratic elites and the unscrupulous and immoral behavior of supposed populists who seek to pander to the selfishness and bigotry of the population at large, when we look at the massive ignorance and corruption present at all walks of life, and by the refusal of many decent and honorable people from any kind of involvement in positions of leadership or even involvement in institutions because of a desire not to be tainted by that widespread corruption, it is hard to feel optimistic about the endurance of our civilization and its institutions. When we are only capable of being united in prejudice and hatred at others, and when we are paranoid about conspiracies even as we are all striving to preserve our own personal well-being, even at the risk of harming others and society at large, we lack the moral credibility to stand as a judge of others who may be doing just as we do, only on a larger scale or more successfully. Oh, that we might turn and repent, that we might have the courage to stand up for what was right even at cost to our own well-being, and that we might show that some nobility still existed in our societies and institutions, even if it was mistrusted and reviled by those who were ruled by their fears instead of by love and concern for others. Do we still have enough time to turn from our wicked ways and be restored to the right way to live, or have we already been weighed in the balance and found wanting?