Priorities

Issue #3.2 ~ March 9th, 2024

Existential Threats That Confront Us

Recently, in a monthly meeting of colleagues from the Secular Buddhist Network where we discuss social engagement and political action from the perspective of Buddhist ethics, we considered three “existential threats” that humanity is facing at this point in history - (1) the prospective authoritarian overthrow of American democracy, (2) the increasing frequency of wars involving indiscriminate and intentional slaughter of civilians, and (3) the relentless onslaught of climate change with its annually increasing incidents of catastrophic weather incidents of extreme heat, fires, floods, and droughts.

No doubt there were other candidates for this dreadful list - some new strain of a highly contagious, severely debilitating virus comes quickly to mind - but it seemed to us in the meeting that the three threats we had come up were already too much to deal with, and to no one’s surprise, we deferred further discussion until our next meeting. Contemplating them now, in the more deliberate context of composing this essay, I notice yet another glaring omission - the unpredictable and unintended consequences of the sudden rise of Artificial Intelligence - and I wonder uncomfortably about what other troubling developments merit inclusion on this growing list.

Recognizing this unwelcome surfeit of dire concerns, let’s explore the ticklish question of how we ought to prioritize our concerns over them. Should any single one of them take precedence over the others?

Certainly, there’s a very strong argument to be made for climate change being the most devastating of them all, as it threatens every form of life in every corner of the planet, and the damage it is predicted to do could lead to total and irreversible mass extinction.

We could envision a similar grim forecast of the end of life as we know it, if we imagine a virus resilient enough to successfully resist every effort to halt its spread.

So too, we might argue that genocidal wars, such as those happening in Ukraine and in Gaza, deserve the highest priority, because in these war-torn regions, the unspeakable suffering we project into the future dystopias that climate change, viral contagion, or unrestrained AI might someday bring about, are unfolding before our very eyes right now in the immediate present, and cry out for urgent remedial action today.

In full awareness of the compelling arguments that can be made for prioritizing each of the above, I’d like to make the case for the authoritarian threat to American democracy being posed by Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy as the most dire of the multiple existential threats confronting us today, and as the one which needs our attention first and foremost, if we are to have any hope of mitigating the other threats in the near future.

It’s all but impossible to adequately describe the threat that a second Trump presidency poses. Here at home, he has warned us unashamedly of his intent to be “a dictator on day one”. There is good reason to believe that he will abuse the powers of the office to, among other things, (1) exact “revenge and retribution” against his political opponents, (2) reinstate the unspeakably inhumane anti-immigrant policies of his first term, and (3) impose the backward-tilting social agenda of the extremist MAGA minority upon the more moderate and forward-looking vast majority of America’s population.

In the international arena, we can expect him to resume cozying up to the world’s worst strongmen (Putin first and foremost), to turn his back on Ukraine, NATO, and our long-standing European allies, and to withdraw once again from the Paris climate accords.

All this, and probably much worse, looms in our Trumpian future, should it come to pass. Remembering how disastrously he mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic, we can only shudder at the thought of how inappropriately he will react to the unforeseen crises that are bound to arise during a second term.

Taking into account these these very realistic prospective scenarios, it’s a reasonable prediction that a second Trump presidency will not only shut down any progress toward warding off all the other existential threats we face, but in all likelihood will actually hasten their arrival.

Accordingly, I reach the conclusion that the threat Trump poses to American democracy is the most consequential of all the existential threats that now confront us. It demands our fullest attention, as the top priority to be addressed in the eight months that remain before the November elections.

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A brief thought on “being the change you want to see in the world” …

This quote - attributed to Ghandi, yet quite possibly not something he ever actually said, but instead a mash-up of a lengthier and more nuanced statement he once made - has made frequent appearances in the ever-growing body of mindfulness and self-growth literature.

I’ve always been bothered by what I take to be its overly simplistic assertion that by “being the change” - whatever that means - one actually helps to bring that change about in the world at large.

On the contrary, I would argue that one helps to bring about change in the world only by actively contributing to the work of making such change. Perhaps “being the change” is a useful first step, if it motivates you to taking action. But without the second step of doing, “being the change” is just staying put in your comfort zone while deluding yourself that you’re actually making a difference.

As an analogy, consider for a moment the critical distinction between empathy and the Buddhist notion of compassion. With empathy, one feels sadness for another’s suffering; but with compassion, one feels the sadness and is thereby moved to take some action toward alleviating their suffering.

This, to my mind, is the critical distinction between “being the change” and doing the work of change.

And, in light of the existential threat we’ve prioritized above, there’s no higher priority for committed liberals and for engaged Buddhists than contributing to the work that needs to be done if we are to avoid the catastrophe of a second Trump presidency.

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Interesting further reading …

• Buddhist teacher John Peacock wrote this forceful essay calling upon practitioners of Buddhist meditation to broaden their efforts beyond attaining personal inner peace and toward adopting a more compassionate, socially engaged, and politically active stance. Here’s a brief excerpt …

  Unless we bring into full recognition our implication in the devastation of the world via our unexamined complicity in the capitalist and consumerist structures that bring about that devastation, then something is horribly awry with contemporary Buddhism. If our quest for personal flourishing in this world, through the study and practice of “Buddhism”, doesn't lead us to question the structures that give rise to hunger, inequality, prejudice, and injustice, then our “Buddhism” exists in a rarified atmosphere divorced from the struggle for existence of billions of beings on this planet. This is an abnegation of the ethical responsibility that we have, not just as Buddhists but as human beings.

• I’ve never done this before (and I promise not to do it very often, if ever, again!), but I am now going to reference one of my own online publications in this listing of recommended readings. Composing the opening essay above brought to mind a piece I posted nearly eight years ago on a blog I no longer maintain, but which is still accessible in the online archives of WordPress. Writing just a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election, I attempted to describe Trump’s unfitness for office in terms of two key criteria for ethical Buddhist behavior. Here are a few paragraphs, which sadly are even more pertinent today than they were eight years ago …

  The first criterion is “skillful speech”.   The teachings tell us that in any verbal communication – spoken, written, or social media post – one should always choose one’s words and one’s tone so as to promote the wellbeing of those to whom the communication is addressed, and, where possible, to lessen any pain or suffering they may be undergoing. By this standard, Trump’s speeches, interviews, tweets, debate performances, and all his other public pronouncements from the first day of his candidacy display a level of unskillfulness never before seen in American politics.  What would be the effect on our country, and on the world, of having such unskillful speech spouting from the mouth of the United States president for the next four years?

  The second criterion is what the teachings describe as the threefold virtues exhibited by one who is cultivating mindfulness – generosity, compassion, and wisdom.  And, more to the point at hand, the teachings also describe what manifests in the absence of these three virtues – greed, hatred, and delusion.  Call to mind any incident of Trump’s behavior throughout the campaign, and consider whether it was one of these virtues, or rather their opposite, that was on display.I’m sure that you will find that these three virtues are always absent, and that their reprehensible opposites are always present.  And once again, consider what the effect would be to have all that greed, hatred, and delusion as the guiding forces on the person occupying the Oval Office for the next four years.

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