In the Service of Our Nation

In the Service of Our Nation By Vartan Gregorian President Carnegie Corporation of New York In the Service of Our Nation By Vartan Gregorian President Carnegie Corporation of New York ServiceNation Summit September 11-12, 2008 New York City, NY ©2008 Carnegie Corporation of New York Cover photo © Corbis 1 On the occasion of this summit on service to our nation, let us first pause to remember that as we gather here today, we are following in the footsteps of great leaders who paved this path for us. I’m sure many of you still remember Martin Luther King, Jr. also stressed that in his rousing 1961 inaugural address, our moral obligations to our fellow men and President John F. Kennedy memorably said, women, both as citizens of our country and “Ask not what your country can do for you. members of the human race. His influence, Ask what you can do for your country.” But it which was immensely important in rekindling is equally important to note that his very next America’s sense of decency, opportunity and words were, “My fellow citizens of the world: equality, reached far and wide. Among those ask not what America will do for you, but who echoed King’s ideas was Reverend James what together we can do for the freedom of Bevel, who gave a sermon in 1962 in the small man.” Even before the current era of global- town of Ruleville, Mississippi, in which he ization—when not only the spread of new and urged African Americans to register to vote. challenging ideas but also the effects of calam- His words were heard—and taken to heart— ities such as disease, poverty, climate change by Fanny Lou Hamer, a Mississippi share- and natural disasters are tearing down every- cropper, who was the first person in her town body’s notion of man-made borders—Presi- respond to Bevel’s call to action even though dent Kennedy clearly understood how closely registering to vote was a dangerous thing for the vitality of our American democracy is tied a black person to do at that time in the deep to the advancement of the human condition South. As a result, she lost her job, was ha- both at home and around the world. rassed by the police and savagely beaten, but that didn’t stop her from devoting the rest of of historical amnesia. At a time when, as a her life to grassroots civil rights activism. Her nation of individuals, we have carried “indi- courage and determination drew national at- vidualism” to a new level of idolatry. Some tention, thus helping to change Americans’ have made it an icon, and an end in itself. understanding of how an individual can serve YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, instant messaging democracy and contribute to change that ben- and more: as much as these new technologies efits all. Why did she do all this? Because, she seem to connect us, they also contribute to said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” what has often been referred to as the new cult of the individual, because they allow us to re- Let me mention another stalwart support- port on the minutiae of our daily lives—some- er of democracy who happened, among other times in moment-by-moment increments—in things, to be a former president of Carnegie a way that makes each trip to the store, each Corporation of New York: John Gardner, who pause for a cup of coffee, each ride on a bus or headed the Corporation from 1955 to 1967 purchase of a pair of shoes so important as to and served as Secretary of Health, Education, make nothing important except that it hap- and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. pened to us. This phenomenon goes hand-in- Gardner was the consummate public ser- hand with the growing American craving for 2 vant. Among his many accomplishments was instant celebrity, even if it is only the fleeting the creation of two organizations founded “fifteen minutes of fame” that seems to have on the twin principles of service to democ- become its own reward. Hence, by elevating racy and volunteerism: Common Cause and the individual to center stage in our crowded, Independent Sector. Gardner had great trust complex, confusing and endlessly evolving in the American people and the nation they world, it may seem that each of us is occupied had built. He said, “More than any other form with celebrating our own supreme uniqueness, of government, democracy requires a certain which is certainly everyone’s right, but at the faith in human possibilities. The best argu- same time, in this way we are often promoting ment for democracy is the existence of men the escalating trend toward individual isola- and women who justify that faith. It follows tionism as well as the ghettoization of discrete, that one of the best ways to serve democracy is unconnected interests. And in the process, to be that kind of person.” To provide yet an- what we are quickly losing is the sense of the other avenue for public service, Gardner had larger community that draws us out of our- the idea of creating the nonpartisan White selves and our specialized, isolated circles and House Fellows Program to draw individuals into the wider society. from different professions, with different ex- pertise, and of exceptionally high promise to Robert Putnam noted this phenomenon Washington for one year of personal involve- in his revelatory book Bowling Alone: The ment in the process of government. In an- Collapse and Revival of American Community nouncing the program, President Lyndon B. (Simon and Schuster, 2000), in which he Johnson declared that “a genuinely free society made a convincing case for the fact that our cannot be a spectator society.” stock of social capital—the very fabric of our connections with each other—is in a steep de- I cite these examples at a time when we, cline, impoverishing our lives, our communi- in America, seem to be suffering from a kind ties and our nation. In part, he attributes this slide to the “individualizing” nature of tech- to, or “positive freedom,” meaning having the nology, which today, we see all around us: one ability, courage and creativity to constructively lone person plugged into their iPod; one per- respond to and participate in a social system son sitting at a computer keyboard; one person that uplifts its members. surfing the Web, checking their e-mail, watch- What Putnam, Riesman, Fromm and ing a video, all on a handheld device that they others down the years who have commented stare at by themselves. The cumulative effect of on the mutual support system created from this isolation amidst the crowd, says Putnam, the best aspects of the relationship between may have a devastating effect on our society in the individual and society often point to is that it undermines the active civic engagement that individual fulfillment is not the equiva- a strong democracy requires from its citizens. lent of the fulfillment of a society’s aspirations. Fifty years earlier, the late David Riesman This is especially true of a democratic society wrote The Lonely Crowd (Yale University Press, such as ours where “We the people,” is not 1950), a landmark study in which he analyzed just a lofty metaphor that begins the text of what he described as the inner- and other- our Constitution but the first lines of an op- directed character of men and women in the erating manual for a system meant to benefit post-World-War-II era. Riesman, a sociolo- citizens across all the race, class, economic, 3 gist, suggested that social pressures, particu- gender and ethnic strata of our society. As the larly those created by mid-century American late Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We may developments such as suburbia, where fitting have sailed in different ships, but we are all in into the community was of paramount impor- the same boat now.” tance and the approval of one’s neighbors was King’s apt description of a society of men critical to being accepted into a desired group, and women descended from people who, at were chipping away at individuals’ ability to some point, voyaged here from somewhere shape the direction of their own lives. He ar- else, also puts the responsibility for steering gued that as Americans—fearful of being seen that boat squarely on the shoulders of all our as different than those around them—adopted nation’s citizens. And it brings up the question the aims, beliefs and ideology of their peers, of whether pursuing the fulfillment of individ- they were, ironically, losing the ability to pro- ual ideals is a laudable goal if it means shirk- vide each other with true companionship and ing one’s responsibilities to the wider society fellowship based on deep knowledge of them- that not only protects one’s rights, ultimate selves and their family and friends. interests and freedoms but also provides the The late Erich Fromm, the internationally social, cultural and economic opportunities renowned psychologist, author and philoso- that allow individuals to test their capabilities pher, long ago worried about the same prob- and achieve their potential. After all, individu- lem, namely, the loosening bonds between the als don’t live—or thrive—in a vacuum. Each individual and society. He drew a clear distinc- one of us is part of a community and a nation, tion between the concept of freedom from, or and all of us are affected by the social and his- “negative freedom,” meaning not being bound torical context of our times, which provide the by restrictions imposed by society and its in- opportunities for us to achieve our goals and stitutions, even in a democracy, and freedom live our lives as richly and fully as possible.

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