Lighthouse of Discipline

The moral integrity of the United States is falling into decadence. Technology today has granted innumerable benefits, many of which facilitate our everyday lives.

In the wake of such advantages, however, is the normalization of a life free of hardship.  That is, a life without meaningful work, and especially without discipline. This lack of discipline within society has precipitated this moral and cultural decline. 

How do we right this wrong? As Catholics, we can look to the Holy See for guidance, but as Americans we can also look to the discipline instilled within the military to showcase examples of what benefits a life of discipline can bring us.

Pragmatic solutions to the lack of discipline in American culture can be first addressed via an analysis of the state’s role as an arbiter of justice, and more specifically hierarchies. Within Rerum Novarum, the autonomy of the individual is emphasized for “[Man] being the master of his own acts, guides his ways under the eternal law and the power of God.” 

This is in line with modern thinking today from the popular book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. In Drive, the author, Daniel Pink explains that mastery, autonomy, and purpose are the three key parts of what makes a person intrinsically motivated to do their work well. 

This mastery element is present not only in work, but in all matters, especially that of the family. According to Rerum Novarum, the State has no role beyond safeguarding their citizenry’s rights, and after doing so, “the rulers of the commonwealth must go no further; here, nature bids them stop.” 

We can see within the military an example of preventing this injustice within the family more so than most state governments are willing to go. In the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the law that applies solely to military members, Article 134 makes it a criminal offense for one to commit adultery. 

Adultery is only a criminal offense in less than 20 states, and these prosecutions are extremely rare. In the remainder of the states, adultery is a misdemeanor at most, and in Maryland the punishment is as little as a $10 fine. 

Should the state not step in to protect the sanctity of marriage, between those who publicly profess their lifelong vows to one another in the public arena? Rerum Novarum disagrees, perhaps surprisingly: “The States must not absorb the individual or the family; both should be allowed free and untrammeled action so far as it is consistent with the common good and the interest of others.” 

Yet adultery clearly is not in the interest of the common good as it leads to animosity between the partners, a want for a divorce, and children with an absent parent. This is one of the first examples where papal encyclicals can align with military examples to show why a greater discipline is needed within the American populace, a discipline akin to that present within some aspects of the military. 

Rerum Novarum seeks to argue after establishing this limit on the State that the right to private property is “inviolable.” By ensuring every man has the ability to work and collect their just wages in order to purchase their own property, men are capable of pursuing their own interests and rightly-ordered desires to achieve self-fulfillment. 

But in the current housing market of the United States today we have seen a “low inventory of homes for sale in much of the country is pushing prices higher. The national median existing-home price in June rose to $426,900, a record in data going back to 1999 and a 4.1% increase from a year earlier.” 

The average income for a worker, however, has not increased at the same rate, and thus it gets increasingly more difficult for members of the working class to purchase property. While these difficulties are a valid concern, we can turn again to Rerum Novarum for us to know that “As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in abundance, or are lacking in them-so far as eternal happiness is concerned – it makes no difference.” 

This is a powerful reminder for the remainder of the discussion. While justice should always be aimed at inequities for the working class, the success or failure of this striving is arbitrary because the end goal of happiness does not come from material wealth. 

This differentiation is analogous to work done within the military. No matter one’s job within the military, their fellow countrymen have an appreciation for their service. One’s gratitude for an officer in an aircraft is comparable to his gratitude for a soldier on the front line. Both of their services are treated the same, even though the officer would outrank the soldier within the military hierarchy. 

Thus, this hierarchy does not create injustice. It provides accountability, structure, and order within the military. The same is true in an economic class structure, because the workers can choose their own jobs or maintain property, and the capital class can create more opportunity for growth in the economy. 

So, how can we protect this ideal structure of economic classes in our pursuit for justice for the working class? For this answer, we can turn to Quadregesimo Anno and the importance of guilds, or associations: 

“The ancient workingmen’s guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place.” The State tried to replace these guilds with their own bureaucratic power, but it has led to repeated failures as the “State has been overwhelmed and crushed by almost infinite tasks and duties.” 

Such associations are powerful tools to help prevent an overreach of the capital class against the workers, but the State is simply unable to supply this support. But the individualistic economic thinking that has come to play in the United States is also at fault, not simply because the State fails at supporting worker’s associations: “From this [individualistic economic thinking], as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors.” 

This individualism is a result of a rejection of authority, because men start to love themselves, rather than something greater. However, it is only after men, who like lost sheep cast away their own shepherd, do they realize the carelessness in their own actions. Without authority, men treat everything as an individual competition. 

The team playing does not enter the vernacular as frequently. One can look to the military’s own command climates and culture to see how important it is to surround oneself with coworkers of similar talents. On the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, the culture of the sailors is to live a life like former President Bush. His military service and time as Naval Aviator inspire the crew and the Captain of the carrier, Captain Dave Pollard. Captain Pollard leads visitors on the ship through engaging stories of then Lieutenant Bush’s experience being shot down by the enemy and having to bail out of his aircraft. Then a junior line officer, Bush’s plane was shot and he had to bail out over the Pacific. He inflated a yellow lifeboat and was protected by his fellow aviators still in the air from enemy ships set to retrieve him from the water. This teamwork, these “associations” are vital parts of each of our lives. “Man, endowed with a social nature, is placed on this earth so that by leading a life in society and under authority ordained of God, he may fully cultivate and develop his faculties … and obtain for himself temporal and at the same time eternal happiness.” A life in society is the key piece here, it is the work being done with other members of the human race that makes it so powerful. This is an example of intrinsic work, no matter the task, the community around completion of the task makes the work itself powerful. We can see this quite frequently within the military. Shared pain often forges stronger bonds within units, which later leads to unit traditions and strong climates for making your coworkers not just coworkers, but lifelong friends. Examples of this shared pain include physical punishment during military indoctrinations, or being required to keep uniforms in a pristine condition at all hours, etc. Some types of shared pain though offer no satisfaction, other than the fact that they develop one’s virtue of obedience. Examples include common traditions of first year students at the military academies, such as running with high knees around the dormitories, standing by a wall when speaking to an upperclassman, or saying certain phrases when moving about the campus. These bonds are forged through fellowship in simply being obedient to another’s command. Another interesting aspect of the academies as well as the other colleges within the US, is that we see a natural rivalry between certain schools in sports and other student activities. Auburn vs. Alabama, Michigan vs. Ohio State, etc. This “fake enemy” helps one’s own organization grow closer as they have a common goal in defeating a rival. We need more of these types of associations today outside of the military and collegiate spheres. Organizations that develop discipline in their members through an understanding that work must be done for the betterment of one’s own soul. Traditions help men stick together, and work against a common enemy in small things helps to create a winning culture. While every association should work to form these bonds and complete their work, it is not always about efficiency, every culture must ask the question, what is the meaning of personal existence?

This brings us to Centesimus Annus, the main point from this encyclical being that work does not need to be easy, only fulfilling to the man’s nature, and that we must not reduce men to cogs in a machine like either Socialism or Communism. The obligation to earn one’s bread by the sweat of one’s brow also presumes the right to do so.” States must not undertake goals to lessen the sweat, but rather to enable those without jobs to obtain the right tools to work the ones that best suit them. Through man’s own effort, not the State’s, should work become easier. The Fable of the Bees attempts to teach us that private vices create public benefits. The book does so by using a beehive as an example. The hive thrives when the bees desire for personal gain is afoot, when the bees become “virtuous” the hive falls apart. But, men are not bees. Men are multifaceted, and can perform acts for personal gain without it being a vice and without being uncharitable. Just as mercy and justice are two sides of the same coin so are public and private virtues. Within Centesimus Annus it is made clear that workers now had a “commodity,” i.e. their labor. They are unsure how to sell this commodity or for what it is worth, and thus injustice can be more readily done to those of the lower working classes as they have no defense. A defense to this today within the military is the same rate of pay for every military member of the same rank. No matter the status, i.e. an officer at graduate school will be paid the same as an officer of the same grade who is deployed on a surface ship, or with an infantry battalion. In this approach, pay is not tied to the work done, but rather to the skill level or experience of the officer. This helps to prevent jealousy from brewing between the ranks and helps to ensure that no job is done for a financial gain over any other job. John Ruskin even say this in 1860, “For a servant or a soldier is engaged at a definite rate of wages, for a definitive period; but a workman at a rate of wages variable according to the demand for labour.” Failure to do so today with workers in labor has resulted in varying issues such as inadequate salaries because the job currently held is viewed as safe, and constant, as it has no end except quitting or being fired both which the worker has mostly in his control. But if this dynamic were to change and all laborers were hired for a specific task, or term, you would see similar benefits as within the military and after the end of one’s period of time working, other jobs begin to open as other workers terms for their own labor have ended. Thus, work does not need to be easy, but it must be paired with a just wage and amount of time or definitive task. 

The largest counterargument from this comparison can be seen in Populorum Progressio. The military is not viewed kindly within this encyclical. Items such as setting aside military expenditures for a world fund, or disapproving arms races are mentioned all too frequently. The main point of argumentation is the emphasis on “love of neighbor” or love for the whole “family of man.” However, love of man does not mean being unable to protect oneself. The mission of the U.S. Department of Defense is “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.” Let the nation with no internal crime be the first to cast the stone calling for the withdrawing of military power from other nations. But, since every nation has at least some crime, there is a pragmatic approach that must be concerned. Police forces are needed as crime will always take place. Conflicts will always take place within nations just as crime does within a nation. Thus, militaries are a necessity. Efforts should be made to minimize the destructive capability of nations, but calling for a worldwide monetary fund can be rebuked by other encyclicals such as Centessimus Annus, which shows that the solution of redistribution within States is no real solution, but rather an error as it is an overstep of the States’ authority. Even within the military today we can see humanitarian aid efforts during tsunamis in Japan, or protection against pirates within the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The military does more to destroy, it protects, an virtue that every strong man should strive to emulate when they see a fellow man get poked and prodded by an external threat.

The United States must restore discipline to its citizenry. We can look to the Holy See for guidance, but also to the military. Hierarchical structures are not inherently flawed as we can see from Rerum Novarum. Associations of men oriented towards the same noble goal also lead to a strengthening of bonds as seen in Quadregesimo Anno. And, equal pay for those of the same level of experience and class results in valuing labor more appropriately for the working class similar to military pay structures, a valuable way to counteract socialistic or communistic ideas as mentioned in Centesimus Annus. While the love for neighbor is a true virtue that we must embody, there is a naivety in Populorum Progressio in believing that all men lack the ability to be a threat. We must be prepared to love our neighbors but also to inflict justice when confronted with injustice. Humanitarian aid and service can be done just by standing guard and being a watchful eye. Like a lighthouse calling sailors to safe harbor, let the guidance from the Popes and examples from our military show us the path forward to form a citizenry with a strong moral foundation for the next generations.