07/01/2020
Moral Numbness Leads to the Abandonment of Moral Principle
By John Pepper
In reading Brett Stephens’ review of John Bolton’s new book, The Room Where It Happened, I was reminded of one of the most gut-wrenching experiences in my youth. I was 7 or 8. I had a pet turtle. I placed it in a bowl with a rock it could rest on surrounded by water. The room that day was cold, so I decided to put the bowl on a radiator to give the turtle some needed warmth. The next morning, the turtle was dead. The temperature had gradually risen. It killed him.
This well-worn analogy, unforgettable in my mind seventy-five years after it happened, applies to the Trump presidency and to Stephens’ review of Bolton’s book.
John Bolton writes that Trump’s Ukraine quid pro quo discussions with the President was “bad policy, questionable legally, and unacceptable as presidential behavior.” Stephens' response: "We knew that."
Bolton writes that Vladimir Putin “had to be laughing uproariously at what he had gotten away with in Helsinki.” But we knew that, too.
He writes that for Trump, “Obstruction of justice (is) a way of life.” We knew that, too. And, so, on it goes. One "head-shaking" divisive and denigrating tweet or action after another.
I asked one of my Trump-supporting friends, “Do you believe what John Bolton is telling in this book will change people’s minds about whether to vote for Trump?” His answer was, “Probably not. Everyone already knew all of that.”
Think back to the history of our country. Would the by now well-supported allegations being made about President Trump, not just by Bolton but by many others, be accepted with a shrug of the shoulders and a “we knew that?” Of course not.
We’ve long known that moral standards of behavior cannot be taken for granted. It’s a slippery slope. A company can pledge itself to never giving a bribe, but then can be tempted to give a small facilitation gift to get something done and, sure enough, that small “facilitation gift” can become bigger, and bigger. You've crossed the line. And as others in the organization see it happening, they start to believe that the controlling mandate is to make the end goal happen, no matter what the means.
This is a dangerous, frightening and treacherous development in our Nation. We are on the way to moral numbness through the repeated violation, at first perhaps seemingly small, of moral standards of truth and of common decency. What does this lead to? It leads to the abandonment of moral principle and the commitment to truth. It leads to cynicism and to the corruption which inevitably follows.
That’s what’s been happening in this country under the Presidency of Donald J. Trump.
This risk of moral corruption didn’t begin four years ago. It will always be a risk in human nature. However, Donald Trump has brought it to an unprecedented level. This represents a grave danger for our Nation.
Bret Stephens cites an essay in The Atlantic by Ann Applebaum which draws on the inspiration of Czeslaw Milosz’s The Captive Mind, to shed light on the roots of this human tendency. There is the relief and pleasure of political conformity, there is the allure of power or proximity to it and there can be a profit motive.
I believe one or more of these attitudes explain how almost every Republican senator is justifying not speaking out against Trump: “I am doing everything I can privately to alter his behavior where it needs to be altered,” they explain. “Coming out publicly would not lead to a good outcome. And while here, in the Senate, I will be pushing for legislation which is good for the American people.”
Understandable responses? "Yes." Responses which are helping to enable President Trump's immoral behavior to continue unchallenged and thereby grow stronger? Absolutely, "yes." This represents a frightening threat to our Nation's future.
In the first week of November, every voter will face a stark question, “Am I willing to continue to condone the moral behavior of Donald J. Trump through my vote? Or is his behavior and the character which it portrays so out of line, so against what I believe is right personally and what is right for my family and for our Nation that I will vote to remove him from office?”
I pray and trust that a great majority of Americans will vote to remove Donald Trump from office.
Doing so will validate and affirm for time immemorial that there are certain moral principles which dare not be transgressed and which cannot be taken for granted and which cannot be tolerated in the leader of any organization, let alone the Presidency of the United States. It will affirm that the values of integrity and common decency reign supreme and that personal character is non-negotiable.
John Pepper - Pepperspectives
