LATELY I'VE BEEN THINKING, and writing , about ways of being human.
The word I've been using is "spirituality", because it's the only word I know which focuses on the fact that culture—the combination of worldview, values, and habits which determines the meaning and shape of a nation—only exists within the consciousness of individuals.
In the end, it's all a matter of individual hearts and minds, of courage and responsibility.
The memos which the Obama administration released yesterday are a perfect example, in multiple ways.
First, they demonstrate what happens when the people of a nation embrace a top-down world-view , abdicating responsibility for their government's behavior.
For eight years, an authoritarian spirit dominated this country. We chose, at the ballot box, to interpret freedom as the freedom of those in charge to call the shots. Our representatives chose to pass bill after bill which took away our rights.
We listened to Cheney, and Rumsfeld, playing daddy, assuring us that the unprecedented powers granted to the executive branch were no problem, because we could trust the authorities not to misuse them.
And we were wrong.
Luckily, we realized we were wrong, and voted the authoritarians out.
But that didn't solve the problem. Barack Obama is wiser, and has better intentions, than anyone in the Bush administration. But the Bush administration wasn't the problem.
We were.
The Bush administration was only the symptom of a deeper, spiritual, issue. It was the fruit of a tree that was rooted in the idea that teachers should be allowed to force their religious views on children, that legislatures should be allowed to interfere in women's medical issues, that governments should be able to dictate who someone loves and calls family.
It was the result of a top-down spirituality rooted in fear, an abdication of individual responsibility for our own lives, and for the behavior of our government.
The publication of those memos is a sign that we are shifting our spiritual orientation, that we are embracing responsibility again.
Why? Because even the Obama administration, as wise and well-intentioned as it is, would not have released them if they hadn't been forced to, by an ACLU lawsuit.
No president wishes to set a precedent for the curtailment of executive power. Barack Obama would probably use that power wisely, but he won't go out of his way to limit it—nor would any of us in his place.
The last thing he wants is a prosecution of a former administration on his watch. From his perspective that would be counterproductive on many levels.
It would take time and energy from many of the current problems he has to deal with. It might well create divisions in the country at the very time he is trying to create unity. It could lead congress to pass laws curtailing the power of the executive branch in ways that would make his job more difficult.
But he released the memos anyway, and he did it because of pressure from private citizens who took responsibility for the behavior of their government.
We can hope that it doesn't stop there.
We can hope that the spiritual shift, the awakening of responsibility in the hearts and minds of Americans which drove the last election, will not stop there.
Because a president needs the wisdom, even the pressure, which comes from a watchful citizenry if he is not going to be driven by the urgency of the times. It's his job to deal with the government's response to the economy, to Afghanistan, to pirates on the open seas. It's our job to deal with the long-term health of the republic.
It's our job to see to it that the war crimes of the previous administration don't get swept under the carpet, where they will quietly serve as precedents for the next irresponsible administration—that they will be uncovered and prosecuted.
It's our job to see to it that government doesn't have powers which can take away our privacy and our freedom—no matter how wisely this administration might use them, or how useful this administration might find them.
It's our job to make sure that we live in a free country that doesn't allow it's laws to be twisted, that doesn't mistreat human beings, that can hold its leaders responsible and hold its head up among the other nations of the world.
The biggest question facing any democracy is whether the citizens have the values, world-view, and means necessary to hold their government accountable. Whether they can force it to act responsibly in the crunch.
That question was answered, for today, by the release of those memos.
Yes, we can.
At least, that's what I think today.
