Social reality is so complicated that, once you join one team or the other, you become specialized in detecting certain patterns, but you become blind to other patterns.
The president is the high priest of what sociologist Robert Bellah calls the 'American civil religion.' The president must invoke the name of God (though not Jesus), glorify America's heroes and history,quote its sacred texts (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution), and perform the transubstantiation of pluribus unum.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the symbolic role of the president in American society as a leader who must uphold national values and beliefs.
In this quote, Jonathan Haidt highlights the idea that the president embodies a secular form of spirituality often referred to as 'American civil religion.' This concept suggests that the president's role goes beyond mere political leadership; it includes the duty to promote and uphold the shared values, history, and symbols that define the American identity. By invoking God, referencing the country's founding texts, and celebrating national heroes, the president acts as a priest of these civic beliefs, reinforcing the cultural fabric of the nation.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a national event, a speaker might reference this quote to highlight the president's role in promoting unity.
More from Jonathan Haidt
All quotes →Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.
Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it? The pill exists. It is meditation.
Trying to run Congress without human relationships is like trying to run a car without motor oil. Should we be surprised when the whole thing freezes up?
If you grow up in a WEIRD society, you become so well educated in the ethic of autonomy that you can detect oppression and inequality even where the apparent victims see nothing wrong.
When you hear someone criticize a policy on the other side, that's fine. But when you start hearing motive-mongering and demonization, stand up to it just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonization, disagreements can be positive.
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We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.
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Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
But the thought arrived inside her like a train: Marya Morevna, all in black, here and now, was a point at which all the women she had been met—the Yaichkan and the Leningrader and the chyerti maiden; the girl who saw the birds, and the girl who never did—the woman she was and the woman she might have been and the woman she would always be, forever intersecting and colliding, a thousand birds falling from a thousand oaks, over and over.
Finally, the intercom crackles and Hatmitch's acerbic laugh fills the studio. He contains himself just long enough to say, 'And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.