Every politician wants to bruise its sneaky head, and gets bitten in the heel. It is the press that hisses out half-truths that ruin the innocent. At a deeper level we all feel the loss of innocence. The world could have been such a beautiful garden, but nothing seems to work any more. Adam reckoned hard work could subdue the earth, but we only manage to pollute it.
Scientists assured us we could be like God, and we end up clever devils. We were meant to be naked and free. Why do we have to lie, cover up, and feel ashamed? Analysts assure us it is not sex but guilt that causes the trouble. Eve still claims that if only she could be even, everything in the garden would lovely. Cain still kills and complains "am I my brother's keeper?"
Even before the fall of Gary Hart we had no faith in the political process.
Do we just lose our nerve, stop hoping, and settle for the decline and fall of North America? At this point the story of Adam and Eve again becomes relevant. Darwin was right about fossils, classifying species, and the long time it took. The problem is that he made us ashamed of the vision we need for democracy. A bunch of apes emerging from original slime is a story that fails to enlighten us. It can only recommend the survival of the clever, the treacherous, and the strong.
Civilization is impossible without an agreed vision. It also needs an agreed story. Greek and Roman democracy failed because their vision involved a few male citizens exercising privilege. That vision could never be shared by women, or slaves, or the nations they attempted to subdue. Their story was flawed because it began with a mythology of ruthless, selfish gods.
The idea of democracy, as we long for it, emerged from Judeo-Christian roots. Our vision involved the whole of humanity. Men and women of all nations and all classes were of one blood. They were made to be in the image of their creator. The world is a garden to be tended. We are free to enjoy its fruits. We should not need to hide or be ashamed. The ideas are as old as the first three chapters of the Jewish and Christian Bible but they are still relevant. They should be imparted to each generation, and used to clarify every question that faces us.
We have made the task of leadership impossible be defining it in terms of solutions. Our political candidates are evaluated as problem-solvers. Gary Hart failed to solve his family problem, so how can he solve our global problems? But problem solving belongs to technology, which is nothing to do with civilization. The least we should require of politicians is that they state our vision clearly, or present a better one if they can.
Together with vision we need a story. The story explains who we are, where we have come from, the difficulties of the journey. Adam and Eve remind us that men and women have always been imperfect. We have always had problems with the opposite sex. And the one who fails will always want to blame the other. But the story also has hope. Our glory as children of God is in our destiny, not in our crummy performance.
A later part of the story goes on to remind us we can forgive a political leader with vision if he fails and honestly admits his mistakes. Jews and Christians both look back to David, the ideal king, who committed adultery with the wife of one of his officers and then had the man killed in battle to cover up his sin. What we have never coped with is a self-seeking wimp with no vision beyond himself. Gary Hart was no wimp and many feel he had the right vision. His failure is the failure of us all. We have forgotten our story.
We do not require Gary Hart's successor to go to church, or even to
believe in God exactly as we do. We hope the press will spare us the resume
of what goes on in his or her bedroom. But without the vision and story
of our kind of civilization, I am afraid Adam and Eve will again need celibacy
and convents to survive the dark ages.