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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>Greetings:<br><br>
I want to thank Tom, Joan, Rose, Saundra, and all the other members of
the gang for organizing the Anti-Inaugural Today. My favorite and
subtlest sign was "Inaugurate This." Here is the text of
my speech given in my Chinese character "Victory" hat, and
today it was Victory for Values.<br><br>
KARMA AND CHARACTER<br><br>
</b>By Nick Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy<br>
University of Idaho<br><br>
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In a recent column entitled “Character is Destiny,” William Safire claims
that the Republicans won the election because they embodied the true
spirit of America’s national character. The GOP, says Safire,
demonstrates a “sharply defined character” in its “mission to defeat
terror while exporting freedom abroad, and a policy to restrain taxes
while increasing social spending at home” (<i>New York Times</i>,
1-12-05). (Was there a misprint in the last six words?!)<br>
Paragons of virtue are widely and indisputably admired. No
reasonable person, for example, would doubt the impeccable character of
Jesus or the Buddha, or, on a more mundane level, Jimmy Carter. The
problem with America’s national character is that we have, since the end
of World War II, have gradually lost the universal recognition that good
character requires.<br>
Nations are of course not persons, and they can be just as conflicted and
full of vice as any individual can be. Our principal failing in the
Cold War was the vice of hypocrisy. We usually had no compunction
in supporting oppressive, undemocratic regimes if they joined us against
the Soviets. The most cynical example of this was our support for
the Contras against a democratically elected government in
Nicaragua. Remember Ollie North, who sold missiles to Iran to
finance the Contras, even though we were supporting Saddam Hussein at the
same time? And why do the Iranians dislike us? Because in 1953 the
CIA overthrew an Iranian Social Democrat whom they thought would be
friendly to the Russians.<br>
In the good old days American character, at least in my family, was
defined as hard work, thrift, pay as you go, and above all, and
fulfilling basic needs rather than frivolous desires. When I was a
kid, my brother and I did not get to eat watermelon until it was one
cents a pound!<br>
Once praised for their fiscal conservatism, Republicans have done nothing
to reverse our private savings rate, the lowest in the industrialized
world, and our ballooning trade and budget deficits. Individual
Americans who do not save, neglect their basic needs, and live beyond
their means are obviously not persons of good character, and neither is a
nation that develops these vices.<br>
I would like to offer the following playground analogy. The bad
guys and their biker chicks are well contained in one corner of
playground. The good students, inspired by European exchange
students, do a good job, with the help of their vice principle, of
disciplining them when they act up. <br>
But there is one student who can’t contain himself. His religion
requires that he must smite the evil doers. So he goes over and picks a
fight with one of the bad guys, and all Hell breaks loose. Now I
ask you: would you say that this guy had good character and
judgment?<br>
The motto “character is destiny” is based on the simple moral rule that
“you reap what you sow.” Buddhists and Hindus call this karma, and karma
is nothing but the law of causality applied to the moral realm. The
Buddha once said that “they who know causality know the Dharma.”
What this means is that if you are mindful of how your actions affect
yourself and others, then you will know what you ought to do. It
also means that you develop the virtues at an early age, your good
character will destine you to a good life.<br>
Democrats lost the election in part because they were perceived to be
less supportive of moral values. And if liberals continue to
claim that values do not matter, and that all we need to talk about is
economic and social issues, we will continue to lose elections.<br>
I believe it is a great shame that we have let the conservatives take the
character education issue as their own. I’m now beginning to work
with the Kellogg School District on a virtues curriculum, one that will
teach our children that integrity, compassion, justice, and courage do
not belong to political parties, but to all human beings.<br><br>
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