Rerum Cognoscere Causas
Uncivil Discourse and How to Remedy It
Rerum Cognoscere Causas
To know the causes of things
– Motto of the London School of Economics and Politics
Growing up in the 1950s, 60s, and 70’s, it was not uncommon to hear people bemoan a decline in manners and civility. Social conventions that had been passed down for generations were going by the wayside, and many searched for reasons and answers. The conclusion, it seemed, was that our decline resulted from God being taken out of schools and the public arena at large.
This all came back to mind with the current lack of civility in political banter, both by politicians (so-called leaders) and the electorate. The downward spiral is so pronounced that three assassination attempts on the President are explained away by some as his fault, in that his words are so mean that killing him is almost understandable.[1] Despite the recent attempted assassination, one opposition leader reiterated his use of the phrase maximum warfarein his own quest to win on a given political point.[2] Strong language that crosses the line of debate and persuasion now seems to be only in the eye of the beholder. Forget bemoaning no prayer in public schools as the parents of Baby Boomers did; today’s social engagement is devoid of any guardrails whatsoever – it’s bareknuckle and crude to the nth degree. How did this happen?
When I was a history major, there were numerous high-quality secondary and tertiary sources to read by outstanding authors. But the best research, the most enjoyable and thought-provoking, was in the primary sources found on microfilm and microfiche. Newspaper accounts, correspondence, essays, etc., offered fascinating insights into the minds and hearts of people at the time events were happening and history was unfolding. The same was true as an attorney; it always paid to begin research with the seminal cases and work forward so that first principles were not overlooked or worse, forgotten. In both instances, the root of the matter was located, and the foundation of an event or issue was discovered. From there, considered thought and understanding could prosper.
With that in mind, today’s predicament led me to reading notes from a world history class taken a few years ago, utilizing a text by William H. Carroll.[3] A historian by trade, on a personal religious level, he was a self-described Pagan Deist[4] who later converted to Catholicism. Throughout his life, and even before his conversion, however, he was convinced of the existence of objective truth, something that was generally accepted until the Reformation. However, since that time and later bolstered by the Enlightenment and Modernist movements, relativism and secularism crept into academia and society at large. History and its methods of study, which once acknowledged the existence of God and the events of biblical salvation, shifted to a human-centric focus, limiting history to a discussion of economic and social interactions among humans alone. Disenchanted with this as his studies continued, Carroll found the clarity he sought in Catholicism. For Carroll, God, the Creator of all, could not be omitted from the events of His creation.[5] Carroll’s work was informed by all of the events and resources as were conventional historians’; only he included biblical references as well as certain confirmed miraculous events. Accepting that the vast majority of mankind believes in the Creator God, and that objective truth is a standard dating back at least to Aristotle, Carroll’s historical perspective is more than reasonable.[6]
Searching for root causes, then, the parents of the 50s-70s were on to something, albeit perhaps unwittingly. Growing relativism led to man and reason being the only standards by which to judge anything. So, admit it, if we’re all equal, then your reasoned decision is not necessarily better or worse than mine. Without an objective standard for truth (the Creator God), life devolves into a free-for-all. Remove the Creator from the creation, and soon the latter thinks it’s the god. Thereafter, everyone becomes their own standard, and chaos ensues. And that’s where we are now, a society without guardrails.
While writing this essay, I came across these words from Raïssa Maritain[7]:
I have always had the keenest desire to know the ultimate truths, not being able to base my life on uncertainties, not being willing to base it on feelings uncontrolled by reason…. God has a special argument available for every soul he seeks. Man must go to meet him by searching for truth…. Avid of true knowledge, I did not know where to find it. At twelve, I thought it lay in medicine; at eighteen, in the natural sciences; at twenty, in metaphysics; at twenty-two, in theology. I know now that it does indeed lie there[emphasis added], and that holiness, when added to it, infinitely increases it, and that the wisdom proper to it can do without everything. Know your religion, Catholics, know your greatness!
No science, no experiment can prove it wrong, it has the words of Eternal Life.
You needn’t be Catholic to agree with her point; Carroll, as a Pagan Deist, saw it. There’s objective truth out there if we have the will to seek it. It doesn’t come from anywhere except the only logical source, the Creator. The way back then from the spiral we’re in is found in our foundations: We the People must return to the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.[8]
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But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve… but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. - Joshua 24:15
[1] As a retired prosecutor and adjunct in Legal Studies, deadly physical force has never been justified as a response to unkind words.
[3] Warren Carroll received his B.A. in history from Bates College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in the same field from Columbia University, the latter degree being completed in 1970. Thereafter, his career included time as a CIA analyst, as well as stints on the staffs of two political figures. He was published and conducted lectures on various historical topics.
[5] So convinced was he in this conviction that, in 1977, he founded Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginiahttps://www.christendom.edu/about/a-history-of-christendom-college/
[6] A History of Christendom is a 6-volume text by William H. Carroll chronicling Western Civilization from its founding until its collapse.
[7] Raïssa Maritain († 1960) was born in Russia and spent her life in France. She was a convert to Catholicism and the wife of philosopher Jacques Maritain
[8] Words taken respectively from the Constitution of the United States of America and the Declaration of Independence.