The Bad Guys Won! Part 1

From Depression to War to West Point: Principles and Values

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

[Songwriters: Leonard Cohen / Sharon Robinson

Everybody Knows lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC]

I. In the Beginning

No matter when you are born, the first and only thing that matters is the horizon. Retrospection comes later.

In 1938, Hitler marched into Austria, Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan flew from New York to Dublin in July on a flight plan that was supposed to return him to California, and in December, two German scientists reported the results of an experiment that proved the atomic nucleus could be split—fission. A mushroom cloud would bloom over the New Mexico desert 7 years later, followed by the incineration of two Japanese cities. But these events awaited future revelations; what was important in the present was dodging the neighborhood toughs and getting something to eat.

Now I wonder: What went wrong? Or more appropriately: What took me so long to realize that everything was not as advertised?

As a kid, ricocheting from one foster warehouse to another, in the limbo of war; peace, if it ever arrived, meant being reunited with my mother. In the meantime our leaders were looking out for our safety, heroic soldiers were chasing Nazis and Japs, and the mighty nation in which I was fortunate enough to be born, was the best of all possible worldly habitats. I was reminded of this daily during the week at school when I would press my right hand to my left breast and proclaim: “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America …” at which point I would duck out at the first opportunity to run off to Burnham Park on Chicago’s lake shore.

The war did end. After a pause, another war arrived to alleviate the volatility of peacetime. We prided ourselves on spectacular weapons, military prowess, wise leadership, technical knowhow and the knowledge that we all had an important role in this great enterprise called the United States—which meant keeping the mouth shut, registering for the draft, not making trouble and not complaining (out loud, anyway).

As a child, undisciplined, marooned, I learned to keep my head down, to get along, to yield to the adults in control and the punks in the streets, to be a compliant bobblehead. Religion was not a forum but a remote, mysterious artifact of polite society. The school was for indoctrination and I paid enough attention to attain the canonical information to enable me to fit in.

“I pledge allegiance …” In high school I joined the ROTC (under orders from my step-father who assessed my felonious propensities), saluted the flag, despised communists, crossed my fingers behind my back when I lied, but lied and strutted nonetheless. “Americanism” was flash, show, performance, a pious countenance and loud professions of devotion to the sanctity of American exceptionalism. But I was to learn that posturing as performance would not carry me far.

Civics class in school was about the constitution; not that we read it but we were impressed with its organization of government—the best government on the planet—separation of powers, the federal system, the profound virtue of American Democracy that made us the most liberated and richest citizens of any country in world history. Little mention was made of slavery, repression of workers, subjugation of women, lynching of blacks and Jim Crow in the south and ghettos in the north, antisemitism and race quotas, the privileges of certain groups and the entitlements of wealth. Again, this would creep up on me much later. In short, I was a student of guile, unsullied by principle, threading the obstacles separating the possible from the impossible.

Later, I was told that to bring up the less pleasant features of American political and social life was to express “hatred for the United States thereby giving aid and comfort to our enemies, skeptics and the effeminate acculturated Europeans and Asians whose superiority complex was evidence of their hatred of freedom and democracy.” Or words to that effect.

In due time I graduated high school, procured a principle appointment to West Point, learned about, “Duty, Honor, Country,” a bit of engineering, math, science, military history, a smattering of French, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, difficulties on the , “Fields of friendly strife,” as defined by General Douglas MacArthur: “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory.” I had the usual problems portrayed in movies, became an officer in the infantry, trained as a ranger and paratrooper, took assignment with the 101^st Airborne Division, had some adventures and resigned my commission to study physics at the University of Chicago, home of Enrico Fermi’s—and the world’s—first nuclear reactor.

Thus it was that a kid from Chicago’s mean streets became, first, a gentleman declared by the Government of these United States, then a nascent scholar, ultimately a research scientist, professor, international civil servant (more on that later) and finally an administrator.

Now I return to the question: What went wrong?

II. Principles and Values

I have condensed an answer in two words: principles and values.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “principle” has 20 distinct meanings, typically defining it as a fundamental truth, law, motive, or settled rule of action. It acts as a foundational basis for systems of belief, philosophy, or science, as well as moral guidelines.[i]

· Fundamental Truth/Basis: A principle can be a fundamental proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief, behavior, or reasoning.

· Moral Rule: It often refers to a personal, moral rule or strong belief that influences actions.

· Scientific Law: It explains how something works or why something happens (e.g., in mechanics, physics, or chemistry).

· Historical Development: The term has developed specific meanings across fields like philosophy, Christianity, and logic since Middle English, and later in sciences during the 1600s–1700s.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, values are defined as principles or standards of behavior, and one’s judgment of what is important in life.

• Standards of Behavior: Principles that guide actions and choices, acting as a “walk our talk” framework for personal beliefs.

• Importance/Worth: The “regard that something is held to deserve”.

• Contextual Uses: The term spans multiple disciplines, including social sciences, economics, and philosophy.

I hasten to add an addendum to the OED classifications for values by quoting the definition included in the Oxford Dictionary of philosophy: “To acknowledge some feature of things as a value is to take it into account in decision making, or in other words to be inclined to advance it as a consideration in influencing choice and guiding oneself and others. Those who see values as ‘subjective’ think of this in terms of a personal stance, occupied as a kind of choice, and immune to rational argument.”[ii]

At first glance, both words seem almost equivalent. But look closely, a principle is “… a fundamental truth, law, motive, or settled rule of action …” whereas a value is seen by some, “ … as ‘subjective’ think of this in terms of a personal stance, occupied as a kind of choice, and immune to rational argument.”

Principle has become the engine of law, executive action, governance and the enterprises of commerce, education and the arts. Once defined, a principle is applied inflexibly. The object is to achieve uniform, predictable outcomes impervious to the ambiguities of human behavior, biology, intent, desire, aspiration or personal morality. And since laws and executive actions are the outcome of those making the laws and executing them, the governing principles reflect the inclinations and human presentiments—the values—of the law-givers and executors. And when outcomes collide with antipodal values, conflict can degrade to violence and sometimes tragedy.

The values that I had acquired as a child were simple, primitive; focused on survival and the avoidance of pain. If I was hungry, I stole food from the grocery or fruit stand, empty bottles from the back porches of the tenements (2 cents deposit for small bottles, 5 cents for quart bottles), pennies from the pavement if I was lucky. To be noticed in school or on the playground I would invent words, lie about my accomplishments, concoct outlandish stories of my adventures. I did—could do—anything at anytime, ask me. But—and this was odd—when accused of stealing something or causing a mess, I would not implicate anyone. I often accepted blame when I had done nothing. Perhaps this behavior was defensive, that I had learned not to deny guilt because I knew adults would assume I was lying and would prolong punishment.

I had been civilized in high school, subject to a system that required attendance in class, obeisance to authority and a reward system based on performance and behavior. But that street urchin never entirely abandoned me.

West Point was governed by many principles: the honor code, discipline, athletics, competition, dress, behavior, academics, order, tradition, warrior ethos, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, adherence to orders, commitment to duty, devotion to country. These principles were to guide the values of cadets. To overcome habit or reluctance we were reminded that the penalty for noncompliance was a notch beneath the existential.

Still, to value personal survival, stature, gain, was counter to the larger principles of conduct that promoted new values: duty, honor, country. But these corporate values harbor ambiguities and contradictions. Is it honorable to tolerate bigotry and repression of blacks and Hispanics and women? Does duty oblige the use of lethal force against the innocent? And if the country is headed down a destructive path, what is our duty?

This will be the focus of Part 2.

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[i] https://www.oed.com/dictionary/principle_n

[ii] https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115129154