How To Change The World Without Leaving Town

Peasant Times-Dispatch Issue 10

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again

Dear Readers,

Well we’re 2-for-2 coming back from Hiatus, so I’m counting this as a win. This is the second issue of the Peasant Times-Dispatch with a slightly different format, bringing it down to one “rock-solid” essay per month. I hope you agree that this is a good one!

In the last month, we celebrated One Year And One Month, we hit 200 subscribers and have just ROCKETED past it, so welcome if you are new—leave a comment and let me know if this is your first issue of the Peasant Times-Dispatch that you’ve read! If you aren’t new—leave a comment anyway because I would love to hear from you!

Thank you for being here, please enjoy!

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Every Man A Hero

In American Culture right now we are going through something of a Superhero Moment. I think it’s fair to say the peak of the Superhero Moment was a few years ago, but we’re definitely still in it and can find superheroes dominating box offices every summer into the foreseeable future.

Why do we like superhero movies? We love the “one man changing the world” stories, we love thinking that the world can be neatly divided into good and evil and if we just fight evil then we will win and the world will be saved!

Real life is, of course, not quite so simple. There’s different ways to do the right thing, and there’s nuances to how they interact with each other.

To my mind, there’s three ways we can try to do the right thing.

• We can live according to what we think is right. A good example of this is holding the door open for someone in a wheel chair—you don’t have to do this but it is courteous and nice and I think we can agree it’s the right thing to do.

• We can live according to what is legal. A good example of this is concealed carry firearms. Different states have different rules for concealed carry. If you concealed-carry in a state that doesn’t allow it, you could be in big trouble. You have to know the law to live legally.

• We can live according to what is true. A good example of this is whether or not we are concerned about sunburn. Some people (me, guilty) don’t worry about it, so I don’t use sunscreen, and I get sunburn all the time. Other people are very worried about it and use lots of sunscreen and carry a sun-brella with them to keep themselves in the shade.

Superman’s “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” covers all three of these in reverse order, funnily enough. What is true, what is legal, and what is right.

Reading this, you might think of some clear wrinkles in this framework, you might think of areas where doing right in one way is wrong in another. What will make this framework useful is to properly relate them to each other.

The Legal Chicken or the Moral Egg?

There are two questions that come to mind that would provide clarity: The first is, “how is what is true different from what is right?”; the second is “Between Right, Legal, and True, which comes first?”

Different people have different ideas of what is true. One school of thought is called “Moral relativism” which suggests that morality is circumstantial and what is right for me might be wrong for thee, or vice versa. In moral relativism, what is true and what is right might be similar ideas.

The Catholic Church teaches that morality is “absolute”¹—that something that is wrong is almost always wrong, no matter the circumstances. So the distinction I am making between what is true and what is right is between a hard moral truth like the ten commandments; and a soft public courtesy like holding the door open. In the example I gave above, the sun will burn me whether I think it’s a problem or not. If I believe sunburn is not something I should be concerned about, my behavior will reflect that but the hard truth—the sun does indeed burn—is inescapable. In the example I gave above, holding the door open is courteous but it is not a sin to not hold the door open for the person in the wheelchair. I am going to substitute “courtesy” for “what is right” to avoid confusion for the rest of this article.

So now, to the question of which comes first.

Truth is the highest order of good, and contains all truths within it. Truth, therefore, comes first. Courtesy is informed by these hard truths. If the Truth is that we must love our neighbors, then courtesy says that we should hold the door open for them in some circumstances. The law then is informed by what truths and courtesies are held by the population at large. The law, you can say, is the sum of the peoples beliefs about truth and courtesy.

Truth→ Courtesy → Law, is the sequence I am suggesting here.

I Want To Be Superman

There are a lot of things amiss in the world, so it is natural to want to be a good influence in the world. How can we use this framework to change the world?

Let’s step through this backwards. If all you did was live your life in strict accordance with the law of the land, then you would do alright for yourself. No entanglements with the law, a perfectly unobjectionable life. But there’s a lot of grey area—it’s not illegal to not hold the door open for a person in a wheelchair. No judge would convict you if that happened. But there is something discourteous about it.

So if you lived in perfect accordance with the law and with perfect courtesy and politeness, you would be a perfectly unobjectionable person. But courtesy is defined very much by the culture, by the people you are around. Courtesy is a social condition and not necessarily a moral condition. Some cultures insist that you take your shoes off when you enter their house; some cultures would be insulted if you tried. Courtesy is relative the society you are in, then. So you might be unobjectionable to the people you are around, and you might be unobjectionable according to the law, but could you say for certain that you are good?

So Truth is the final pillar. If you live according to the basics of morality—the ten commandments—then you can be assured of some level of moral truth. If you are courteous in addition to that, the only people you will offend are people who do not live according to that basic morality. If you behave legally in addition to the truth and courtesy, then you’ve hit the trifecta.

“But Scoot, you said this can change the world! How does that work?”

The key is simple: live differently. Live life according to truth. People will notice, people will ask you what about your life makes your life different. You can say the difference is truth—God’s truth, the Church’s truth—and that abiding by truth has never led you wrong.

There’s one caveat, though. Abiding by truth does not excuse discourtesy. Catholics and Christians can often feel very confident in truth and forget courtesy: forget that our neighbors, God’s creations each of them in their own right, are earlier on their journey than we might be. Courtesy ensures that we are behaving with kindness and neighborliness that draws people in; Truth ensures that we are doing so without compromising the important core beliefs.

This will change the world because people will see your life and want to emulate it. They might even try it out. They might find that they like it. And then they will start to live differently. This is slow work. There will be no epic battles against evil. There will be no spotlights, no heroic moments. No one will call on you to save the day from one big terrible evil. But you will gradually find you’re making a difference. A friend who comes to you in crisis—you can make a difference. Members of the community who are looking for a good example—you can make a difference. And over a whole lifetime—you can leave the world a better place, from your friends, your family, your children, your colleagues.

OK But Like, What About Peasant Superman

There are some people in life who can see reality with effortless clarity. They see what is right and wrong, and they just do it.

This is a peasantly attitude. There’s no dilemma about choosing between what is true because—why choose anything else? In his famous book, “Seven Storey Mountain,” Thomas Merton describes staying with a french couple during his questioning years and he gets into a religious discussion with them and they just laugh and go about their business. His ideas are silly because they aren’t true and they know it but he doesn’t. Maybe a missed opportunity for some courteous lessons, but nevertheless—there’s a simplicity in holding fast to truth. Everything else flows from that.

There’s also an element of what I will oxymoronically call “moral selfishness”. A peasant wrings his hands, has fear and trembling, about the state of his own soul, not the soul of others. Once he feels a little more confident about his own soul (he can never be too sure), he can be concerned about his family, and then his community. Rarely can he be concerned beyond that. A peasant should always try to be courteous as a result—never to be the first to throw stones, given how aware he is of his own sins; always conscious of the beam in his own eye before pointing out the mote in others.

Worrying about what is true can lead one to many good things; worrying about courtesy can make it easier to share that truth with others.

I’m Only A Man In A Funny Red Sheet Tending My Sheep

Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

 The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.”

And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

Luke 18:10-14

It is very easy to want to change the world. How is a bigger question. Some people want to change the laws, some want to change other people. The best way is to change ourselves. There’s no way around it—when people say be the change, they don’t mean, start changing other things. They mean—start with yourself.

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God bless you all!

Ad Jesum Per Mariam

1. OK, this is an oversimplification. What matters is the deed, the intent, and the awareness of the moral matter. There is a difference between wanton murder and killing as part of an army defending a homeland from violent invasion. Killing is always a horrible thing, and at no point does the Catholic Church relish in any form of unnatural death. These nuances get into matters of what “sin” is, culpability, etc. Too much for the purposes of this article.