One lump or two?

A number of years ago, I worked with a very likeable attorney. He was friendly to everyone, tried to avoid hurting the feelings of colleagues and staff, and had a good -- if quirky -- sense of humor. He was memorable -- especially for a defense trial attorney -- because of his love of Italy in general and Italian opera in particular. When we moved into new offices, he saw to it that, instead of having conference rooms prosaically designated as A, B, and C, these rooms were instead labelled Aida, Boheme and Carmen.

I knew he was a Republican, and generally avoided arguing politics with him. On one occasion, however, we did have a good natured discussion about taxes. He, of course, wanted taxes to be low, the lower the better. I pointed out that lower taxes meant decreased services. Not just aid to the arts, to National Parks, to transportation -- but to the unemployed, the disabled, the elderly, widows and orphans (yeah, I pulled out all the stops!). Many people in our society, I reminded him, through no obvious fault of their own, depend completely on public assistance. Cutting taxes means taking away the life jackets that just barely keep these folks' heads above water.

He looked at me, sort of blankly, and shrugged. "So what?" he asked.

You have to understand that this guy was not the office cynic. He was not a wise guy. He didn't go around joking about the misfortunes of others. He wasn't obviously racist. That's why I was stunned into silence by his "so what." It was a conversation stopper. I wandered out of his office, and tried to on about my normal business.

This guy would never deliberately harm a flea -- if he was dealing with the flea in person. But once the "flea" became an abstraction, just one of a mass of fleas out there in the outside world, he no longer had the ability or the interest to empathize with whatever oppression and suffering rendered that flea's existence miserable. If the story of civilization is the progressive redefinition of "family" from its original meaning to encompass, first, an extended family, then the tribe, then similar social and ethnic groups, then a geographic region, then the nation, and then all humanity -- my friend was still somewhat low on the level of civilization. And yet, to all appearances, he was the very epitome of a "civilized" man.

I remember all of this when I read about the Tea Party supporters who are now massing back in Washington. They are not deliberately evil men and women. They want lower taxes. Who doesn't? They want smaller government; and what government there is, they want to make more local. These are good objectives, in themselves, and worthy goals to keep in mind when contemplating and devising governmental programs. But I sense a collective shrug, a murmurred "so what?", when Tea Partiers are reminded that their taxes aren't just money thrown down the drain -- that in part those taxes allow persons less lucky than themselves -- those dealt a poor hand in terms of brains, social skills, good parenting, good schooling, inherited character traits, or just plain bad luck during their lifetimes -- to live a life surrounded by at least the bare minimum requirements of our society: food, housing, clothing, education for their children.

I understand the concerns of the Tea Party. But I also sense this total failure on their part to empathize significantly with others -- with those to whom they aren't related by blood, friendship, or similar ideology -- a failure so total that the very real hardships of others appear of little consequence compared with their obsession to shrink government and lower taxes.

As I was when I confronted my attorney friend, I'm left speechless. Not this time out of shock, however, but because I realize that argument is useless. The typical Tea Partiers have a different mindset, a different way at looking at life. Their philosophy is not alien to me, not incomprehensible -- but it doesn't represent the best this country has to offer. It's a more primitive way of thinking, one that we should all have been growing beyond by now, and I think, if pursued, one that will lead to enormous future problems. Not just problems for the so-called underprivileged, but for our country and our civilization. For all of us.