Today the Philadelphia Inquirer carried a review of Alan Wolfe’s new book How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It. Wolfe, a sociologist and author of several popular books, contrasts two approaches to American power:
Most Americans, Alan Wolfe believes, belong to “the party of goodness.” Preoccupied with virtue, individual freedom, and the pursuit of self interest, they fear that “too strong a government, too ambitious a domestic agenda, and too overreaching a foreign policy” will corrupt the very values that make this nation exceptional.
Wolfe prefers, however, the “party of greatness,” which involves “maintaining and extending liberty and equality; empowering government to promote the common good; and using force to defend and spread our principles abroad.” Unlike the party of goodness, proponents of “greatness” are willing “to bend principle, and sometimes law and custom, to achieve their goals.”
So Wolfe is presumably a fan of the Bush administration, right? No way! The Bush administration has used the language of greatness to mask an agenda that primarily serves private interests. To restore greatness we need high minded leaders devoted to the public weal like John McCain, Joseph Biden, and Wesley Clark.
Now surely Alan Wolfe has been around the block and must be aware that the language of “greatness” has frequently been used as a cover for the pursuit of private advantage. But Wolfe seems shocked that the Bush administration would do such a thing.
More fundamentally though, I’m with the “party of goodness” in getting nervous when I hear talk of “national greatness” or “America’s purpose.” Why should we think America has a purpose beyond secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity? I’m still enough of a Lockean to believe that governments exist primarily to protect the lives, liberty, and property of their citizens. That is the purpose for which they are established, as T.J. and co. pointed out.
But some have never been satisfied with that and have wanted America to have a more exalted, transcendent purpose. (e.g. being a “light to the nations,” “making the world safe for democracy,” even putting an end to evil). But where, pray tell, does this purpose allegedly come from? Are we talking about some Hegelian History-with-a-capital-“H” here? Or divine purpose maybe?
But as a Christian I believe that precisely two social entities – Israel and the catholic Church – have been endowed with a divine purpose. Beyond that, I can see no grounds for thinking that America, or any other nation-state, is the bearer of any kind of transcendent purpose. Such messiaic claims usually result in massive bloodshed and tyranny.
The idea of a government that protects the life and liberties of its citizens and helps them to live in relative peace and proseperity in order to pursue their own ends has always aroused suspicions from certain intellectuals on the Left and the Right. They yearn for a political order that directs its subjects to some kind of transcendent purpose. But history seems to show that those kind of regimes have a tendency to subordinate ordinary people and their happiness to the whims of those fortunate enough to be on top.
A Thinking Reed 
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