To the editor:

To begin, I would like to recommend a recent book I have begun reading titled Humility: The Secret History of a Lost Virtue. The book starts out by telling how Socrates wanted others to be as humbled by their own ignorance as he was of his own. The author, Christopher Bellitto is a PhD historian who puts a nail in the coffin of modern hubris and self-inflation. The author describes humility as perhaps the most important virtue we can strive for in this life.

When I watch the videos of modern speakers, I see many filled with hubris and narcissistic self-inflation who are willing to judge and condemn for the sheer purpose of establishing their own sense of self-importance so that they might win. They are like the character Oderisi in Dante’s Divine comedy who is stuck in purgatory by his drive for excellence, reputation, and recognition as the most important person in his field. He is sent to purgatory by God, doomed to carry a large boulder on his back to remind him of his sin of having been blinded by his love of self.

One of my favorite writers is Eastern Orthodox Theologian David Bentley Hart who shows us what the masses fail to see:“the fundamental presupposition of a logical argument is not provable but assumed”. I think what he is telling us is that we cannot begin our search for truth from the place of certainty. Instead, as Socrates tells us, we must begin from the place of our own ignorance, our flaws and our weaknesses.

What I see in modern politics are two opposing methods of seeking truth. The first are those arguers who begin from a place of knowing. They have all the answers, and their goal is solely to prove that they are right so that they might win. This is certainly true in this year’s presidential race where there seem to be no rules of civility and where opponents have no reluctance to use the ad Homonym argument of diminishing their opponent’s intelligence in their attempt to win.

The second group, who like Socrates, start from a place of unknowing and their goal is not to win, but to seek out the truth. To these arguers, openness, ethics and fair play are of the utmost importance in their quest to simply establish what is true.

Richard Greene

New Ulm