Читать книгу The Essential Agus - Steven T. Katz - Страница 32

It is now generally accepted that national boundaries do not constitute the limits of our ethical obligation. So, the Torah begins the teaching of Judaism with the narrative telling of the creation of mankind.

In addition to our duties as American citizens, we owe certain obligations to those who share our faith and our historic heritage; we possess a certain kinship with those who share our culture and our freedoms; we are obligated to serve the entire society of mankind. There is no neat way in which these duties can be meshed together. In the perspective of the Way and Vision polarity, we recognize that a dynamic transition from one social pattern of loyalties to another is the rule rather than the exception.

First, within the boundaries of America. As a “nation of nations,” creating one community out of diverse ethnic strains and religious traditions, America cannot but strive for a unity of sentiment and fellowship as well as of multifarious strands of law. While we begin with the law affording equal justice to all, without any distinctions of race or creed, we cannot be content with the bare bones of legal justice, but must supplement it with the sentiments and aspirations of a common fellowship. If the French nation, emerging suddenly into the air of freedom, found it necessary to aim at fraternity, as well as liberty and equality, we cannot set a lesser goal for America. The inner logic of patriotism does not permit us to stop short of this consummation. Hence, the need of supplementing the legal structure of the nation by positive acts of philanthropy and concern, interethnic and all-American in scope, that will have the effect of creating a true American brotherhood, not merely a congeries of competing groups.

It follows that we need to combat the divisive spirit of racism, whether it arises among “white supremacists” or “black nationalists.” Upon all of us, there rests the duty to help those who for historical reasons were late in enjoying the benefits of American society. We have to complete the laws of equality by charitable concern for those who stand in the doorway of our society, partly in and partly out, either in a social, or in an economic, or in a cultural sense.

However, in our drive for national unity, we must not ignore either the claims of individual’s or the values that are inherent in the subcultures of our society. It was the specious siren call for unity that in our time served the fascist dictators so well. The Vision of Unity that we seek must not be a doctrinaire mold, imposed from without, but an organic reality growing out of the American Way; integrating its values, not crushing them into the monolithic gray of conformity. The image of the “melting pot” suggests the ultimate homogenization of society, its turning into a viscous soup, without any lumps. In the realm of ideals and sentiments, the abstractionism of radicals may be as vicious as the prejudice of reactionaries; with due attention to the existing patterns as well as the looming vision, we can only aim at the growth of fellowship and mutual regard, not the obliteration of differences.

In the integration of the Negro, the Mexican, and other races, our guiding policy must be to guard the rights of the individual and to administer even-handed justice to all. Our governing principle is equality of opportunity, rather than egalitarianism, the attempt to impose an artificial level of equality upon all groups. We know from the sad annals of our history that such attempts create discord and stifle the creative talents of those who have most to give to society. In the interests of the nation as a whole, we cannot allow the organization of ethnic groups on a quasi-political basis, groups that would fight each other for the spoils of the national economy. The bitter rivalry of racist pressure-groups is a corrosive poison that our society can ill afford.

An economy that is open to all individual’s on the basis of merit will be supplemented by a cultural atmosphere that is receptive to all ideas and values, allowing the diverse ethnic subcultures and religious faiths to make their respective contributions to American culture. While it is true that some Americans have no subculture or religious faith to enrich their lives, we must insist that only an inverted sense of justice would require that all social-cultural enclaves be erased in order to make all “equal.”