The fall of communism in the Soviet Union provides a new opening for social transformation. It is an opportunity unparalleled in our lifetimes. But it depends on our ability to grasp a new notion of politics based upon ethical values and moral vision. It is time to shed the ideological straitjackets that have constrained political discourse for so long, to jettison the old polarities of Left and Right, liberal and conservative, that have ruled our hearts and numbed our conscience.
The failure of the hardliners' coup in Moscow has had an unintended result. The August Revolution of 1991 irrevocably overturned the October Revolution of 1917 and immediately opened up space for better alternatives to a world stuck in frozen systems of thought and the moral poverty of only two options. A new framework, new language, and new visions can now be drawn from a reassertion of basic personal and social values, many of which derive from our best religious traditions.
Central to any new politics will be a new spirituality -- indeed, a renewal of some of our oldest spirituality -- a moral sensitivity that refuses to separate political ideas from their consequences for human beings and for the rest of creation. Genuinely new political ideas depend upon that revival of the heart and renewal of the spirit. Political transformation simply cannot succeed without spiritual transformation; the two must now go hand in hand.
Communism collapsed under its own failures, not because of the much proclaimed victory of the West. The failure of Marxist communism was principally ethical, even theological. The communist system terribly overestimated how much humanity could be changed from the top down through enforced social restructuring, while fatally underestimating the corruptibility of the self-appointed elite who would carry out the utopian task. Ideology supplanted ethics in a horrible willingness to sacrifice countless human lives on the altar of ideological necessity. The inefficiency of the system merely compounded its moral failure.
Much idealism was lost on the communist ideology; generations of capitalism's moral dissenters put their frail hopes in one revolutionary incarnation after another, only to be betrayed. The most systematic challenge to the West finally collapsed, its best impulses having died long ago -- and the world is left with still no alternative to the many sins of a global capitalist economy. Communism had been born out of an ethical revulsion to capitalism's worst abuses, and it ultimately self-destructed due to its own failure of ethics.
INSTEAD OF THE simplistic and self-serving congratulations many of our politicians are heaping upon the West in the face of the East's collapse, a deeper response to the historical moment would be a call to self-examination. The fact that there is no longer any clear alternative does not take away capitalism's own evident failures to resolve the problems of injustice and inequality. Capitalism still presides over the grossly unjust distribution of the world's resources, the continuing degradation of the environment, and the relegation of huge segments of humanity to misery and death.
The state religion of communism has so far merely been replaced by the Western religion of materialism, an idol that has already been shown to have great attraction for those recently set free from the idolatries of state totalitarianism. Communism violated ethics out of ideological necessity; capitalism violates ethics through its devotion to the sacred "market" and the pre-eminence of profits over every other consideration. Ultimately, both systems have failed the poor, the earth, and the human heart.
The American people sense something very basic is wrong. The same people who give the president high popularity ratings are deeply worried about their future and that of their children. Yet our most serious problems are seldom really faced by politicians who seek votes but generate no confidence. Our political leaders and media analysts have yet to comprehend the moral and spiritual dimensions of these crises, let alone their deep interconnectedness.
Like communism, capitalism could come apart because of a failure of ethics. Conversely, the re-assertion of fundamental ethical values could bring about the moral and political renewal so desperately needed in the West. With the fear of communism now set aside, could we not now -- finally -- face up to the moral contradictions inherent in our own system, which we have so conveniently accepted for so long? Is it not time to stop arguing ideology and begin to speak in terms of what is right and wrong? Would not finding real and practical solutions to undeniable problems be a better definition of politics than the endless pursuit of power?
TRULY BREAKING FREE of former ideological restraints could offer new challenges and opportunities for diverse people across the ideological spectrum.
Conservatives who have genuinely worried about the totalitarian dangers of command economies and the lack of effectiveness of welfare states could be freed to engage in a new involvement for the sake of the poor. They could be invited to take even more seriously their deep concern for human freedom and individual liberty by demonstrating a real commitment to justice for the masses of people who have simply been shut out and left behind. It's time for political conservatives to prove they are not just providing cover for wealth, power, and right-wing self-interest, but that they sincerely care about some basic principles.
Liberals could be set free from the constant accusation of being sympathetic to communism, and will no longer have to carry the baggage from the failures of leftist regimes. They could be invited to take even more seriously their genuine concern for the disenfranchised by making a real commitment to the kind of personal and community values that make social change possible. It's time for liberals to show they are less committed to particular models and ideologies than to the poor themselves -- and to finding solutions that really work.
The religious community could be set free from its own conformity to the ideologies of Left and Right and no longer divide itself along the lines of secular political categories. Christians across the political spectrum could take a fresh look at what the Bible says about social justice and righteousness. Freed from its subservience to the status quo and its own institutional self-interest, the church could humbly offer its best wisdom and insight for the sake of God's children and God's earth.
We could all get out of our various camps and enter into a fresh dialogue with one another about the path ahead. The best way to common ground is to move to higher ground. Only a heightened level of moral discourse in the public debate can bring us together.
Will godless communism simply be replaced by the god of Western consumerism, or will the true religious values of justice and mercy find rejuvenation? Will ideology be replaced with ethics in the construction of social and political alternatives? Indeed, because of the demonstrated human capacity for both great good and terrible evil, ethics must become the touchstone of our political life. Virtue must be the fuel for our visions, integrity the measure of our programs. Grand schemes must give way to practical solutions that give compassion and hope new life.
This could be a moment of freedom from old shackles that have long bound us. Let us grasp the opportunity and walk through the new opening before history closes up on us once again.
Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.
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