Andrew Bard Schmookler

     
  SACRIFICE by Andrew Bard Schmookler

I've been trying to understand this bizarre political season, and the word that keeps coming to my mind is "sacrifice." Sacrifice has two main meanings. The first is a voluntary act of self-denial for a greater good. It is what heroes do, whether they be soldiers or parents or saints. The second kind of sacrifice is a victimization that some impose on others to spare themselves. Sacrificial lambs bleed so that we don't need to. The American people, it seems, are now succumbing to an ancient temptation: to find sacrificial victims to avoid confronting the real need for self-sacrifice. In America today, the blood of politicians is flowing upon the altar of our public discourse. Governor Clinton's "death by a thousand cuts," as it has been called, is only the most dramatic example. The public's rage at the way some members of Congress had interest-free use of money belonging to other members is another. The alleged shortcomings of our leaders dominate our attention, blocking out the genuine challenges we face as a people. Meeting these challenges would require that we make sacrifices, so we sacrifice our leaders instead. Our leadership is hardly blameless in our present dilemma. But who is it except us, the American people, who a decade ago gave irresistible power to that president who promised the free lunch in which tax cuts would balance the budget? Who but us rewarded the leaders who cracked "Go ahead, make my day" and "Read my lips, no new taxes" to keep the red ink flowing? Who buried in a landslide the leader who declared, in the prosperous season of 1984, that he would be honest and tell us he'd raise our taxes to cover the costs of the government services the country wanted to keep? If our political process has become full of deceit and cowardice, it is because the American people themselves were attached to deception and afraid to confront realities. If, instead of providing genuine leadership, the politicians of both parties have maneuvered, as in a game of Old Maid, to see who will be left with the blame, it is because we as a people did not want to face the hand we have dealt ourselves. The future we mortgaged has begun to arrive, and paying the mortgage will take sacrifice. What George Bush, before he understood the American people's eagerness to be deceived, called "voodoo economics" is working its black magic on our national fortunes. What Howard Baker, trying to back his president, euphemistically called a "riverboat gamble" has squandered our inheritance. So we have roads and bridges crumbling, we have hard-pressed local governments across the country cutting back on the services that invest in our human resources, and we have mountains of debt across the board. And so we lose ground to the Japanese, who willingly practice the economics of sacrifice, with their high rates of savings, their high prices and comparatively cramped lifestyle, and their long working hours. Rebuilding a solid foundation for national development will take investment, and investment means spend now, profit later. But that is the wrong sequence of costs and benefits for people who eschew sacrifice. Therefore we create a political campaign filled with pseudo-scandals, and crucify the very leaders who might call us to our better selves. It is frightening to contemplate our national unwillingness to sacrifice, for the sacrifices that may be required of us in the foreseeable future go far beyond the sound investment practices of the old economic game. As the earth itself begins visibly to buckle under the destructive weight of our global economic mechanism, unprecedented kinds of sacrifice are beginning to demand consideration. The world's climatic stability is jeopardized. Are we willing to sacrifice the convenience of our profligate energy use to bring it back into balance? The earth is strained by the mushrooming numbers of humanity. Are we, who consume a disproportionate amount of the earth's resources, willing to have fewer children than we might choose on a purely personal basis? The environmental impact of our meat culture, it is becoming clear, is devastating. Are we willing to abandon established cultural dietary preferences and move back down the food chain so the planet can breathe easier? We are coming to a time when real changes of direction will be demanded of us, and change is always difficult. If we make these changes voluntarily, and in time, we will be heroes to those to whom we bequeath a healthy world. But the present spectacle is hardly heroic. It is a time for sacrifice, but not the present crazy laceration of the candidates. It is a time for scrutinizing character, but it is our national character that should most concern us.

Andrew Bard Schmookler is the author of the forthcoming Nothing Sacred: The Fate of Values in a World of Goods.