08/15/2024
My musings:
Let’s Build on the International Win of the Prisoner Exchange for More Civility
It’s not news to anyone that this national election—and the one preceding it way back in 2016—have been plagued with division and incivility. For a time, sky high tensions seemed to cool after the tragic assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. But that détente has passed. As just one example, “ABC News’s senior congressional correspondent, Rachel Scott, has reportedly faced threats to her life after her piercing interview of Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists convention,” according to The Guardian.
Such threats came out of a highly contentious interview itself when Mr. Trump accused Scott of being “rude” to him with a “nasty question” in the latter’s querying of him over comments he allegedly made about Democratic Nominee/Vice President Kamala Harris’ race. Such domestic mudslinging, especially over politics, has unfortunately become the norm in America.
Of course, incivility over the election is not the only topic roiling the nation. This spring witnessed an explosion of anger on college campuses over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the BBC reports, “The decision by the University of Southern California to cancel the valedictorian's speech at commencement—followed by its cancellation of the main [May 10] commencement—led to outrage on campus. The valedictorian, who was chosen due to high grades and involvement in campus life, had posted a link to a website that was critical of Israel, which led to recent accusations of antisemitism.” According to the BBC, this attempt at mollification actually led to more unrest between both sides and even the arrest of 93 people.
Yet as my book The Civility Mosaic: How Anyone Can Use the Principles of Freemasonry to Repair Our World explains: “Increasing rancor isn’t reserved for our dueling governmental leaders; it is spreading to dealings between other countries, pitting nation against nation. Saber rattling is on the rise, along with hostilities threatening to shatter a tenuous international peace.” Importantly, my book was published in 2021, a full year before the Russian/Ukraine War. This terrible conflict has resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the conflict.
Fortunately, there has been one bright spot in international affairs. Earlier this month the biggest prisoner East-West exchange occurred since the Cold War. According to CNN: "Speaking to reporters on the tarmac, President Biden pointed to his relationships with heads of state, which aided the complex swap negotiations, and heralded his own efforts to rebuild alliances.” International relations matter, especially the fraught one between longtime adversaries Russia and America. Seeing this glimmer of reconciliation, fleeting as it was, can reminds us that hostilities—even historical ones—needn’t remain immutable.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace agrees with this notion, envisioning improved relations by 2030: “U.S.-Russian relations are at the lowest point since the Cold War. Almost all high-level dialogue between the two countries has been suspended. There are no signs that the relationship will improve in the near future. However, this situation is unlikely to last forever—even during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union maintained a limited but meaningful dialogue; the two countries eventually will reengage, even if mostly to disagree, and new U.S. and Russian leaders could pursue less confrontational policies.”
In an effort to build upon the win of this month’s prisoner exchange for greater civility, let us turn to two concepts I explore in the Civility Mosaic: The Teleological Mindset Shift and the True Apology. By incorporating these principles into future international dealings, we can lower the temperature among nations around the world—before it’s too late. Note: teleological is another way of saying one starts with the end in mind, reasoning backwards to develop the means for getting to a specific goal.
Freemasonry’s unofficial motto—to make good men better—gives us this end point as a desired outcome. Our brotherhood even possesses a symbol of such transformation: the smoothing of the rough ashlar. Importantly, it is my belief that just as one man can evolve into a better version of himself, so can a group of men—and women. With this outcome in mind, let us put forth a vision for these dark times: the idea that history is not a random sequence of unrelated events. Instead it is an upward progression with insights and lessons building upon one another. For as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The moral arc of the universe is long. But skews toward justice.”
Accordingly, the U.S. can make the conscious decision to be more civil internationally, even with those countries we have historically grappled with, including Russia. This doesn’t at all mean we should condone atrocities like Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine. The present war is an abomination, producing countless deaths, displacements, and untold destruction. Any person of conscience should condemn Putin’s nefarious actions. Even so, American leadership can decide to build upon the recent prisoner exchange to move us closer to the type of improved global relations expressed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Next, we would do well to incorporate the true apology in our future international dealings. As discussed in the Civility Mosaic, on an individual level there will undoubtedly be times when we have wronged somebody, either accidentally or intentionally. While we should always strive to do no harm, we are fallible, and our emotions, or errors in judgment will occasionally get the better of us. What is important is how we handle it when that happens.
When it comes to international dealings, a restoration of global civility means atoning for past mistakes, especially when our country’s actions have harmed another nation. The United States of America is a nation not without fault. We can point to the second Iraq War as one such egregious example. It’s a well-known fact that America entered that war under false pretenses—the now debunked claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The disastrous war that ensued led to the deaths of many Iraqis, including innocent women and children, not to mention, widespread destruction of property and the displacement of countless citizens.
For the United States to seize this moment to promote greater international civility, our leaders would do well to deliver a true apology to Iraq, Vietnam, and many other nations in which we have done tremendous harm. Contrary to what some might believe, giving a true apology is in no way an expression of weakness. It’s a show of strength. Being magnanimous in this unusual fashion would show the world that America is once more acting as a true (moral) leader. It’s entirely possible that such a gesture would have profound ripple effects. It could even inspire other nations to acknowledge their own mistakes and atone for them.
Yes, there’s an element of wishful thinking at play here. But sometimes that’s what necessary to awaken people from their slumber, to shake them out of the complacency that comes from believing things will never change. After all, a few months ago it was all but unthinkable that Russia and America—sworn enemies in a bloody proxy war—could possibly unite to exchange prisoners. And yet it happened. This shows us the power of thinking differently to improve society Here’s to more political breakthroughs in the days to come. They just might result in a more civil world. To learn more about how you lean into Freemasonry’s tenets to affect such positive global change, please get your book today:
The Civility Mosaic
