This I Believe

Back in the 1950's there was a radio program called This I Believe, on which people, mostly  prominent but some obscure, read essays with the same title as the program itself. NPR has been re-broadcasting them in recent days, and I find them very interesting. Some have been assembled in book form and are available in public libraries or for sale.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a stab at it myself as a way towards self-definition, at a somewhat advanced stage in my life.  So for anyone who cares, or has a few idle minutes, this is what I believe.

I believe in a brotherhood and sisterhood of all human  beings, whatever the cultural or political trappings they are immersed in might be. I'm not so naive as to think there aren't significant differences among us, but on the big things - wanting to prosper, wanting personal fulfillment, wanting to raise our children in security and with a chance to pursue their own destinies - I think we are all rather alike, wherever we live on this old planet. As Sting once put it, "We share the same biology, regardless of ideology, and what might save us, me and you, is if the Russians love their children too."

I believe we are our brothers' keepers. When people need help we are obliged to help them, and we needn't/shouldn't ask if they deserve that help. To put it shortly, if we only help those who deserve our aid, we won't help very many people. To be sure, there are folks who are habituated to letting others do for them, but even they must be accorded the basic benefits of life.

I believe we have a duty to clean up our own messes. I take seriously the passage in the  Book of Genesis in which God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, to take care of it. There is a dichotomy in our Judeo-Christian tradition, I acknowledge. Genesis also says God gave humans dominion over nature, suggesting we can do as we please with the other creatures here. But I prefer the first premise, that we are stewards and it is just totally arrogant for us to abuse or use all up what resources are on  and in the earth.

I think I might believe in God. It's certainly difficult to think of creation without a creator, but what God is remains mysterious to me. But I do believe in religion, at least in the ten Commandments of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount.

For the record, I believe in science. I believe humans evolved from earlier species of apes over the last several million years. I believe the earth is warming due to human action, and that warming will accelerate catastrophically over the next few decades unless we change our profligate ways immediately. I believe we could be up to the challenge, but many people will resist making changes in their lives for the simple reason that the needed changes will cost them money.

Still, I believe that a regulated private enterprise economy is the most efficacious way of delivering goods and services to most people in a society. It is also the economic system most congenial to human liberty. Having said that, I also believe government has a vital role to play in preserving real competition among businesses and intervening in business to promote the general welfare.

I believe in art. Art uplifts and provokes us. Whether it's Shakespeare or Michelangelo, or George Lucas or Jackson Pollock, it's worth  our support and our appreciation. I believe we'd all be spiritually poorer without a vigorous and uncensored art community. And, I believe in scholarship. Intellectual curiosity is one of the great pleasures of life.

I believe in freedom. I believe that people who insist on their own liberty must be willing to accept and defend the liberty of others. The old mantra is still valid: "I disagree with everything you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (But that's your death I'm talking about, not my own.)

I believe in humor. I believe laughter is the best medicine. And I believe I've said enough for today.