In last week’s Arts Section, a student submitted a review of Dennis Prager’s latest book, “Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.” In the center of the article a quote appears from Prager in bold black print in which he defines Leftism, Islamism, and Americanism as religions. He then goes on to argue in favor of one of these pseudo-religions, championing what he calls “the American Trinity,” that is to say, Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum.
Religion transcends external reality. For theists, religion brings you into communion with God. To make the claim that Americanism is a religion is to turn man’s gaze away from heaven toward trying to find satisfaction in a nation state. Prager, like many who consider themselves “conservatives,” has fallen into the trap of wedding political ideology to religion. Prager not only believes in an American Trinity, he also believes that spreading such a blasphemous idea is a good thing. The Left and the Right share the misconception that America can transpose a type of perfected state onto the temporal world. The Left looks forward to a future of total equality, while the Right looks backward to a misconceived characterization of the Founding as a lost age of Republicanism and individual freedom.
The distinction between Leftism and Americanism is particularly problematic. The Left is a substantial part of America. You cannot set up a conception of “America” and what it means to be an “American” based upon your personal political principles and then reject or accept the “American-ness” of others based upon their conformity to your principles, especially considering that Prager’s principles are not representative of half of the country.
If you want a strong and happy America, stop talking about American Trinities and start talking about virtues. Before the arrogantly self-named Enlightenment, few, if any, argued that freedom and prosperity were the key to a society ordered to securing the good. Virtue points individuals, associations, and societies to what is good, to what is true, and eventually to that which is most good and most true — God. The virtues achieve this because they signify that which is truly divine.
Prager may keep his handbook to the American way. That road leads only to more materialism.
Richard Norris
Class of 2013