The Third Pillar

I.
I once believed that we should teach virtue in public schools. But I no longer do. Not that I don't think it's important; I think it's more important than ever. I just don't think schools should be doing it.

How people prioritize morality is subjective and teaching ethics in public schools means a small group of orthodox thinkers will be making decisions for everyone. Those in the education field overwhelmingly identify with the care/harm and fairness principles of Moral Foundations Theory. This imbalance of ideological perspectives will undoubtedly leave out some important views.

So schools are the wrong place for virtue. The other place people turn to are brands, which is also a disaster. For example, people like Patagonia for its activism. Which is great but I've already stated that I don't think this will work. Expecting moral leadership from our favorite brands is absurd and will ultimately be disappointing. Any business that has activism as its primary focus will fail once its platform becomes unpopular or unprofitable. Brands are not your friends; they have too much skin in the money-making game.

I believe that the reason people care so much about the political leanings of CEOs is because most people are not getting their moral leadership from anyone else. So they tie their identity to politics and witch hunt for heretics.

II.
There is a third pillar to our society that gets left out of policy discussions and that is where virtue should come from: non profit institutions. The problem is they are declining or still in their infancy. Black Lives Matter could be the next great civic organization but they lack the social infrastructure that churches and the Knights of Columbus already have. If they ever get big enough and become the moral leaders of their constituents, they can replace the work of some of our older, declining community-based organizations.

Churches and civic organizations are not profit-driven and are decentralized and localized enough to respond to and understand their community's needs. They should be bearing the weight of moral leadership we've been throwing at the Bernie Sanders and Oprah Winfreys of the world.

Don't get me wrong, we should still hold accountable abhorrent behavior, like shareholdes did with the former Uber CEO. But that's a far cry from the people who boycott Ellen for sitting with President Bush or the people who burn their Nike shoes after the Kaepernick campaign—it seems like that energy would be better spent trying to improve one's local community.

III.
I often think of Plato's idea of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. I think education is a good place for exploring the True (science, math, history) and the Beautiful (art, literature) but I think the Good is not the right place for it. The Good is something decided by a community, something bottom-up and decentralized. It's never going to be a one-size-fits-all phenomena. It's never going to work in public schools.

Otherwise you get something like this: Bernie Sanders becomes president and his education secretary starts mandating public schools teach critical race theory to all students. A backlash follows at the next election and Donald Trump Jr. becomes president and his education secretary starts teaching white nationalism to all public school students.

I'd prefer to skip this back and forth nonsense and leave the topic of morality and virtue to community-based non-profit organizations. Let the state regulate business, ensure a healthy and functioning society, and provide for the common good. Let the market respond to consumer demands. Let the community and non profit institutions do what they do best: look out for their neighbors and promote the Good.

(side note: I wrote this post before coming up with the title. When I googled "The Third Pillar" I found a book with the same name and it's topic is almost the same as my post.)