Morality

Sacks on restoring the common good

I’ve shared below a short selection of quotes from Jonathan Sacks’ book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times.

Let’s jump right into it, starting with a discussion on freedom within restrictions (structure or boundaries):

David Brooks “was talking about the distinction between “freedom from” and “freedom to”. “Freedom from” means the absence of constraints, but “freedom to” is, in his words, “choosing the right restraint”. […] You have to make a commitment, and that, says Brooks, is in part “a choice to forgo a future choice” Or as he put it slightly differently, “commitment is falling in love with something and then building a structure of behavior around it for the moment when love falters.” (p.273)

Morality, Jonathan Sacks writes, “gives us ‘freedom to‘ —to dance the choreography of interpersonal grace and be part of the music of loving commitment to the lives of others. […] morality is a one-to-one relationship between a person and a way of life. It is a choice that precludes other choices. Only the willingness to make a choice allows you morally to grow.”

“To become moral, we have to make a commitment to some moral community and code. We have to make a choice to forgo certain choices. We have to choose the right restraints. And having fallen in love with some moral principle or ethical idea, we have to build a structure of behavior around it for the moment when love falters.” (p.274)

“Trust cannot be restored by the market or the state, because these are arenas of competition, not cooperation. It cannot be restored by smartphones and social media, precisely because these are not face to face. When I use social media, I am presenting myself, not encountering you in your full and distrinctive otherness. When I use them to acquire information about the world, I have no immediate way of knowing whether the message I receive is true or false, objective or manipulative. When I use wealth or power to achieve my purposes, I am advancing my interests as an individual, not our interests as a moral community.”

“The beautiful thing about morality, though, is that it begins with us. We do not need to wait for a great political leader, or an upturn in the economy, or a new mood in society, or an unexpected technological breakthrough to begin to change the moral climate within which we live and move and have our being. [… Sacks] described our current situation as one in which we have outsourced morality to the market and the state. But morality in its truest sense cannot be outsourced. It is about taking responsibility, not handing it away. All it needs is for us to think about the “We”, not just the “I”, and immedately we change the tenor of our relationships.” (my bold, p.298)

“When we behave toward others with care and concern, sensitivity and tact, honesty and integrity, generosity and grace, forbearance and forgiveness, we start to become a different person. And such is the nature of reciprocity—itself one of the deeply engraved instincts that is the basis of morality—that we begin to change the way others relate to us; not always, to be sure, but often. Slowly but surely, a new atmosphere begins to be felt, at least in the more intimate environments in which we function. Bad behavior can easily become contagious, but so can good behaviour, and it usually wins out in the long run. We feel uplifted by people who care about other people” (p.298)

“We are touched by other people’s pain. We feel enlarged by doing good, more so perhaps than by doing well, by material success. Decency, charity, compassion, integrity, faithfulness, courage, just being there for other people, matter to us. They matter to us despite the fact that we may now find it hard to say why they matter to us. They matter to us because we are human.” (p.307)

“To begin to make a difference, all we need to do is to change ourselves. To act morally. To be concerned with the welfare of others. To be someone people trust. To give. To volunteer. To listen. To smile. To be sensitive, generous, caring. To do any of these things is to make an immediate difference, not only to our own life but to those whose lives we touch. Morality is about us each of us in our own sphere of interaction, taking responsibility. We don’t have to wait for the world to change for our lives to change” (p.309-310)

“Covenantal politics […] is about “We, the people”, bound by a sense of shared belonging and collective responsibility; about strong local communities, active citizens, and the devolution of responsibility. It is about reminding those who have more than they need of their responsibilities to those who have less than they need. It is about ensuring that everyone has a fair chance to make the most of their capacities and their lives.” (p.322)