The early Greeks are said to have invented the idea of democracy, but that wasn’t their only contribution to the philosophy of governance. They also pioneered the importance of the “golden mean,” the mean between extremes.
Right now, we are experiencing an assault on both of those critically important concepts.
The assault on democracy is well-understood; indeed, it preoccupies the political discourse. The importance of the “Golden Mean” is less understood. The Golden Mean was a core concept in Aristotelian ethics; Aristotle argued that virtue consists of finding the right balance in our behaviors and emotions. (For example, courage is a virtue that lies between the extremes of recklessness and cowardice. Generosity is a virtue that lies between stinginess and prodigality.)
American politics constantly wrestles with the proper balance between individualism and communitarianism. The country was founded on the principle that individuals are entitled to a generous zone of liberty–a zone that government should not invade until or unless that individual is harming the person or property of another, That principle gave rise to a very American, almost religious belief in individualism, and a corresponding suspicion of social programs and laws for the common good, which are inevitably opposed as unAmerican “socialism” or “communism.”
In the real world, of course, we are faced with finding a proper balance: what sorts of things really must be done communally, and when do government programs unnecessarily breach individual liberties? (I will ignore, for purposes of this discussion, the hypocrisy of MAGA folks who disdain “socialism” only when it benefits poor folks, and who have no problem with a corporatism that translates into socialism for the rich and a brutal capitalism for everyone else…)
What triggered the foregoing discussion was an article from the Guardian about–of all things–diet and exercise and long life. The article noted a decline in public health and life expectancies in rich countries, and posed the obvious question: what explains the gap between the public’s growing knowledge about living longer and its collective health going backwards?
The author of the essay is a public health scientist in Great Britain, whose job is looking into the factors that affect how long we will live. As she wrote,
Most of these are out of individual control and have to do with the country and community we live in. The truth is, this “self-help” narrative doesn’t reflect the reality of how health works. In fact, the focus on personal responsibility and self-improvement has distracted us from the real issue –the impact that public policy, infrastructure and community make in affecting our health chances and longevity.
After citing the far better health and longevity outcomes in places like Japan, she writes that “What stands out about these places is that the people living there don’t just make individual choices that lead to better health – they live in places where healthy lives are normalised by government and culture.”
As I talk about in my new book, if I’m going to live to 100, I need more than fastidiously counting my calories and posting pictures of myself exercising on Instagram (which I am guilty of). I need to live in a world where health is a collective responsibility, not an individual one. This means supporting policies that make us all healthier – and politicians who prioritise the conditions for good health such as nutritious food especially for children, active cities, clean air policies, preventive healthcare and public provision of water, which should be at the core of what a government provides its citizens. There are lessons in how to improve life in all of these areas across the world: these are places where good health is built into daily life.
I confess that I have a strong libertarian streak, and a corresponding belief in the importance of the individual values of diligence, honesty, and hard work. But common sense requires recognition of the importance of the communities in which we live–the societies within which we are, in communitarian jargon–“embedded.” People cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they don’t have boots. They cannot simply choose to breathe clean air and drink uncontaminated water. Poor people without health insurance cannot simply decide not to need medical care.
Whether politicians want to acknowledge it or not, there are major elements of our lives that can only be addressed communally, and most of those can only be accomplished through government. Our job is to craft a social infrastructure that is adequate, that supports without intruding–to find that elusive “Golden Mean.”
I don’t think MAGA is interested…..
Allow me to correct your last sentence, Sheila: the Oligarchy is not interested in anything socialized unless it is for its own benefit. The Techno-Fascists have just shown us how it works in Washington if folks pay attention. Has anyone heard the apologies coming from Musk over the last 48 hours? I’m sure he got plenty of phone calls from the Silicon Valley area commanding him to apologize.
MAGA is just easily brainwashed into believing whatever they are told, and if you can condense it into a cute meme, even better. It’s the closed-minded problem. I’ve even heard minds slam shut on these blog comments recently when it came to AI. If you haven’t at least experimented with AI in 2025, you might be a closet MAGA. 😉
The concept of communalism was leading the globalization project, as promoted by the World Economic Forum. As the world has become smaller and more connected, it makes sense to have global leadership making certain decisions for our planet. As you can imagine, Big Fossil Fuel companies have spent billions on propaganda to get the people to reject globalization. Guess where they were able to influence the most?
The US and UK. The people in the UK are catching on, but the US is so heavily propagandized by our oligarchically owned media outlets that we are lagging way behind. Now with Trump running the oligarchy, we’ve retreated from the global stage. China is filling in the vacuum left behind, and we are blaming them for doing so. LOL #IDIOTS
More global economists are sending up red flags about the dollar and our ability to borrow in the bond markets. We. Shall. See.
So many issues which make up that “Golden Mean” come to mind; knowing which are the strongest to uphold the combined efforts of so many to reach that goal on a personal level initially and work into family, community, and beyond to the governing level. Ayn Rand’s “The Virtue of Selfishness” sparked only one possibility where that would be a virtue, it came to mind while flying home to Florida with three grandchildren and the flight attendant gave the safety instructions. If I didn’t put my oxygen mask on first, how could I safely see that all three grandchildren were properly masked…or possibly aid other passengers.
Currently; our personal actions of those who struggle to maintain normalcy in the midst of chaos, uncertainty and outright fear is a severe strain on those of us trying to maintain the day-to-day functioning of our lives. The interference and uncertainty heaped on us to maintain our personal responsibilities to be able to overcome the current governing body. Confusing to say the least; I left organized religion when I realized I was afraid to make a decision on anything rather face the possibility that my decision could be the cause of injury to others in any way.
“Whether politicians want to acknowledge it or not, there are major elements of our lives that can only be addressed communally, and most of those can only be accomplished through government.” The current government is not providing that oxygen mask we need to maintain the “major elements of our lives” which can only be “accomplished through government”. The current government needs to be overthrown but it is now putting our own military on our streets against us. Who do we turn to but one another and that is the crux of many of our problems; family members against family members and friend against friend. Who do we put our trust in to seek and be part of that “Golden Mean”?
Well said. Cudos on today’s essay.
JoAnn,
Very insightful and spot-on! You’ve walked the walk, and now you talk the talk! Thank you!
Sheila,
Excellent thread today, it is true how threads can change by the commenters, it just depends on what’s weighing heavily that particular day. And that’s awesome that we have that choice! That freedom to evolve can be very short-lived.
So I don’t know how to get it started today, but one thing that came to mind, slavery should be in the distant past, but obviously it’s not. When you have groups salivatingly sending out text messages to people, telling them to report to the plantations as what happened a few months back, and other issues, it’s not very comforting to even imagine people have that mentality today. Even if we all know the reality of the situation.
Another issue in this country is the different cultures here. For example, during slavery, those slaves ate what was ordinarily thrown away. Chitterlings is just one very small example. And how it became culture, or a culinary survival. But people still eat them today! Very unhealthy.
We know from science, that you can find every type of living organism in the area you live by testing the air or DNA samples. And it will show you every animal, every insect, every fungus, every bacteria, every virus, every human, that has and is living in the area.
When living organisms, and that includes humans, have existed in a particular area for thousands of years, or maybe just hundreds of years, they adapt to the environment. The environment is symbiotic to all life in that area. And if you remove people who have lived in an area for epochs of time, their bodies have a hard time adjusting. And that goes along with the food they eat, or is available, and what they use for medicinal purposes, and just everything we take for granted.
It causes major health issues, major psychological issues, a longing for something long gone in the past. The entire planet is symbiotic, and the body knows it’s being poisoned, the food, the environment, and just plain injustice. Human life is being strangled by a lack of strength. Mental strength, physical strength, spiritual strength! It’s a concept that has been verified by science, but really ignored. And that’s very damning.
The wealthy are not what they should be, because they use greed to accumulate that wealth. Like they can take it with them. Instead of having a magnanimous type of conscience, they would rather everyone else beneath them accept slavery, Don’t make trouble, just live out your life being obedient something that does not kind or decent.
This is the mentality that’s been going on from the beginning. Trickle down economics, trickle down healthcare, trickle down food supply, trickle down education, trickle down housing, trickle down sustainment in every single form or fashion.
The Golden mean also goes ahead and hand with a golden rule. And you can see how the striving for wealth and power overrides both of these examples of golden dogma. And using the Golden dogma, the backdrop of today is Marines being dispatched to Los Angeles this morning for their active duty orders. This is something that didn’t have to happen, but the greed, the narcissan, the power grabs, override everything else. Instead of living in a world that could be amazing, for people would have access to what they need for happy life, those at the top prefer to impose their own will, desire, power, on ones they deem inferior. Ones that they cannot imagine inviting into their home for a meal. Ones they would wish invisibility could swallow them up only when they’re needed for some concocted purpose. And who are those that the upper echelon wish invisibility could swallow up? I would suggest you look in the mirror.
News reports I woke to this morning shows but one end to the LA starting point. We are headed to marshal law at breakneck speeds as Trump avoids all laws to send more troops to more cities and more violent protesters from other areas will converge on the cities to prove Trump’s accusations that immigrants are the problem here and must be deported at all costs. Are the intruding violent protesters being paid? Ya think? Will the unlawfully used troops be asked their opinions on being sent to act against other Americans?
Are the masked ICE agents masked to protect themselves from RFK, Jr.’s ending of vaccine protection and studies on recuring Covid-19 and new viruses or to hide their identities from prosecution if their actions are taken into our remaining lawful courts?
Setting in place the “Golden Mean” within our entire Judicial system should be Step 1 in removing Trump and his MAGAs. This nation’s survival is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate as they ponder what to do with Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” which is against all that means democracy, Rule of Law and support of the Constitution of the UNITED States of America.
I have a couple of questions. How do we find the golden mean? Is it by trial and error? Does it shift, like the Overton Window? In the last five months our perception has changed. We’ve gone from, “It can’t happen here,” to “Oh my god, how do we stop this?”
Aristotle was the greatest logician in history. Could he have posited such an outlier in history as Orange Jesus? It seems unimaginable.
I believe Todd is right about the Oligarchy. For them and Trump, all is transactional…”Anything I allow ‘them’ to have/get means less for me.”
Again the Ubuntu concept of “I am because we are,” is about communalism. And “All thriving is mutual,” are about this concept. Research has found, that treeless neighborhoods have a very negative impact on the people living therein, regardless of their political perspectives, libertarian, or otherwise.
Peggy, we are living in a replay of 1930’s Germany, and, yes, this must be stopped!
Having just taken a brief look at HCR’s posting this morning, I see that “38% of Americans” approve of the way Trump is governing, and that 38% approve of RFK Jr’s idiocy. Does this represent the 10% of us who thought Nixon was spot-on the day before he announced his resignation????
Obviously, I am right that the universe is not made of atoms, but of stupidity, and insistent ignorance, because each is everywhere one looks.
Listening yesterday to Heather Cox Richardson interview Pete Buttigieg I was struck by how he is one of the few people I hear with ” big ideas.” He thinks differently, he has vision and optimism. From the time of FDR, America used to think this way. But the nearly century old assault on the middle class, THE aspect of society essential for a functioning democracy, has left us hollowed out with bleak, cruel policies and outcomes. Only a change of heart and a forceful response can turn this around.
Mitch,
I’m not sure “insistent ignorance” is the root cause, but it sure seems like it.
In Einstein’s “Why Socialism,” he noticed in 1949 that capitalism and free markets tend to focus on the “I,” while socialism focuses on the “WE.” What he saw at that time in our country is that Americans resented the WE.
JoAnn’s mention of Ayn Rand was perfect because the communists in Russia stole her daddy’s business, she had a huge resentment against the WE, or collective. She thought all religions were worthless and the source of the problem with modern man. It made us weak! We are still going through those progressive stages, which is why Trump and MAGA focus on being bullies while they accuse “liberals” and “woke people” of being weak. Only weak people worry about other people.
John Sorg can correct me if I’m wrong, but all religions encourage us to look at the collective rather than inflating the ego. While nurturing an ego is essential, it’s not the end goal. What was the end goal of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Transcendence. Self-Actualization. The realization that we are all connected, and it’s not just about fulfilling our own needs. Sometimes, this appears to be a mid-life crisis.
So, is it ignorance or just a lack of self-awareness or lower stages of personal development?
When the sentiment expressed is “I’ve got mine, screw you!”, especially in the name of religion, whether materially or spiritually, the collective We/I does not include THEM, just US/me. It is interesting that the easiest way to recognize THEM is the most apparent, color. In the eyes of all too many in this country, the darker the color, the more excluded they should be. No interest in what underlies the skin other than the labor available to exploit as cheaply as possible.
When shown the soldiers cheering dump’s bigotry at Ft. Bragg, it chilled me to the bone. These are people who swore to protect rights writte in the words of our Constitution, to be defended against all enemies foreign and domestic. Those oaths are ashes in their mouths, not to be trusted. They are traitors to every word in that oath.
Now we know who to trust to protect the collective We, and it is not them. It is certainly not the Congress and the courts are questionable as they do not seem to have any enforcement ability. So, who is left? We, the People. RESIST.
JD – fact check on the % of military and/or police who lean Right. It’s materially more than the overall population.
Up, Up, with people! People everywhere! If more people were for people, there would be a lot less people to worry about, and a lot more people who care!
This was sung by the madrigals at my HS graduation. And it has helped me to stay positive during a number of trying times. Perhaps it will help someone else.
When people find balance in their own lives, they are able to join in community in a meaningful way. If you’re in an exclusively authoritarian society the norms are set outside yourself without individual input. Edicts, laws, customs are a rigid trickle-down occurrence and conformity is the virtue, that stifles individual maturation.
Democracy allows the freedom to make decisions for ourselves, to hopefully make our lives better. Carrying out good decisions is a lot of work and can be an uphill battle for many due to lack of support.
Currently with the trump regime, project 2025, Maga and the Libertine billionaire tech Bros controlling a lot the narrative and imposing their ways on government, our democracy hangs in the balance. Our rights, power and means to maintain our balance is jeopardized.
DJT, Stephen Miller, Christie Nome, Pam Bondi et. al. are using sick, hurtful, even deadly Meanness to go after Gold. They have it all backwards; they have it wrong!