Cartoonistry: Palm Beachers should have faith in democracy and vote your conscience
In 1962, Aldous Huxley wrote his final novel, “Island.” I read it in my early 20s and this satirical quote from it has stuck with me ever since: “Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver us, dear God, from Belief.”
Huxley explains that Faith is something very different from Belief. “Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too seriously,” he wrote. “Faith, on the contrary, can never be taken too seriously. For Faith is the empirically justified confidence in our capacity to know who in fact we are.”
Boy, does this quote keep popping into my head nowadays.
It seems that more and more people will believe anything they are told by someone they think they align with ideologically. This was the underlying premise of my Sept. 26, 2021, Palm Beach Daily News editorial cartoon, which commented on how traditional conservative principles are being overrun by conspiracy theories and intentional misrepresentation.
I did another preliminary cartoon sketch at the time that didn’t make it into print. It showed a pilgrim reaching a sage hermit at the top of a mountain. The pilgrim asks, “Oh great Swami, I came all this way wondering if you could tell me who to believe?” The hermit answers, “How would I know? The Internet reception stinks up here.”
Today, more than half of Americans get their news and information from news websites, social media and podcasts, where it is often difficult or impossible to vet the source material. Aside from how this has affected critical-thinking skills, it’s also a ripe environment for fraudulent behavior — and that has permeated the realms of journalism, politics, health care, business, finance and even religion.
You might think I’m only talking about Newsmax, MAGA, anti-vaxers, messaging scams, cryptocurrency and evangelical politics. But no, irrational beliefs don’t plague just the political right. For example, Democrats these days commonly believe that if they lose seats in this mid-term election, you can kiss democracy good-bye.
I have more faith in the efficacy of American democracy than that. My faith is based on 235 years of history. The U.S. Constitution has been amended, reinterpreted by the courts and even attacked in contentious times, such as the Civil War, but it continues to serve democracy well. I do not expect one election to do it in.
Still, it’s not impossible that a perfect storm of malfeasance and deception could undermine constitutional principles enough that democracy eventually crumbles. We’re currently seeing ideological belief systems take root in courts and election offices that are meant to remain impartial and dedicated to strong ethical principles — a dangerous sign.
This is where Huxley’s definition of faith comes in — “the empirically justified confidence in our capacity to know who in fact we are.”
We can move forward without tearing down our bedrock institutions. All we need do is reflect on how and why American democracy has proved resilient for so long, and vote accordingly. Have a little faith.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Columnist: Palm Beachers should have faith in democratic principles
