Volume 5, Issue 22
College students claim the right to demonstrate almost as a rite of passage. Student protests, from the Vietnam War to Occupy Wall Street, have, at the core of their genesis, one issue or principle which the protestors find has absolutely been abused and sacrificed. In such a defined scope of a principle violated, the public discourse and debate can be expanded and benefited to further include the definition of principle as it relates to the national character.
This orchestrated exit was initiated at the beginning of the Vice President’s presentation. Therefore, the boycott was not in response to his remarks of the day, but to the overall general presence of an official representing the ideology of the Trump Administration.
What is disturbing about the demonstration is not that the students decided to show their displeasure by walking out on the ceremony. It’s that it was a protest in general without a specific cause. No principle, or collection of principles, was cited as the basis for their ideology, and no specific aggrieved principle was quoted as the basis for the insult to their integrity. To refuse to receive the words of the duly elected Vice President of the United States, they were making a statement that his appearance was in direct conflict with their ideology. What ideology? They failed to articulate the principles for the foundation of any ideology.
It is one thing to be upset about the foreign travel ban, health care, women’s rights or the environment. These are political issues. General diverse philosophies, such as socialism versus free enterprise, states’ rights versus federal dictates, and religion versus secularism, are the platforms for ideological theories and concepts. Complete ideologies necessitate a belief that certain principles are eternal, and therefore, all appropriate political action stems from the source of the principle basis for the ideology.
Protests of government policy, without a basis in principles, is political vacuity resulting in casuistry of ideology.
When interviewed, the students justified their actions by citing everything from the Catholic faith to general disagreement with President Trump. One group of students went so far as to say that their actions were actually a protest against the Notre Dame administration who should have consulted them before choosing a commencement speaker.
Really!
The University of Notre Dame belongs not only to current graduates and all alumni, but also to history. It is a great university which has consistently encompassed an ideology of tolerance, inclusion, and open dialogue. Notre Dame certainly respects constitutionally elected officials. The students are right to claim the Catholic faith, but they are wrong in only claiming part of its doctrine. Catholicism does embrace charity, particularly for foreigners. But it also takes a strong stand on the rights of the unborn and the purpose of marriage. Picking and choosing certain moral principles from faith and tradition, while ignoring other moral principles that are part and parcel to the overall core competency of that faith, is at best immature, and at worst the essence of sophistry.
Such pursuit of an incomplete and unsustainable ideology further exacerbates the divide in America because it is not representative of a national cloak that covers, binds and warms all Americans.
Further, it is imperative to subject all ideologies to the eternal crucible of fire. If it is not based on eternal authority, then it stands on the sands of time, shifting. It’s not enough to just believe in a spontaneous emotion. One must know from what source the principle is eternal.
Our Founding Fathers believed that all rights were a gift from the Creator, the only principled sovereign source of eternity.
This exchange and debate about America’s purpose is not limited to domestic policy only. On his recent trip to the Middle East and Europe, President Trump made it clear that he expects sovereign nations, in alliance with America, to not be wards of the American world state. He lectured fifty Muslim nations by expressing his belief that they should themselves eradicate religious extremism from Islam. He demanded that NATO partners pay their fair share for their own defense. To some in the American press, this seemed blunt, harsh, and unsympathetic. Again, one could say, really!
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a recent speech following the President’s trip, lamented that Europe could no longer count on the United States or Great Britain for their future. We should all be concerned about each other’s future. Nations that believe in freedom must work together, in alliance, for the protection of that freedom. But Europe’s future belongs to Europe.
What is critical to the plenitude of character for every individual is that he or she determine for themselves the definition of consummate truth, founded on eternal principle. One test for the substance and strength of any truth is whether or not principles, derived from its roots, are nourishing to all mankind, and therefore binding in the human bonds of said principles.
Truth transcends mankind’s existence. Homage can only be rendered successfully to an eternal truth from an eternal source.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?