What if Steelworkers Ran the World?

I read earlier this week about a federal government official, a lawyer, who has been nominated for an important judicial position. It seems that several significant examples of plagiarism have been found recently in his academic writings. Some in congress have said the plagiarism issues demonstrate a disqualifying lack of integrity. Those who support the appointment cite the man’s professional experience, and that he is a graduate of Yale Law School.

It hit me as amusing that being a graduate of an Ivy League college should be a positive credential. I mean, haven’t grads of Ivy League schools like Yale and Harvard, along with other elite universities, been the ones leading this country? And look where they’ve led us. Maybe it’s time we stop accepting “graduate of Yale Law School” as a badge of honor, a credential conferring a right to leadership. Maybe it’s time we start searching news stories for words like, “a graduate of Eastern Carolina University,” of Northern Illinois, or Berea College. Can you imagine a voter leaning over the back fence to tell a neighbor about a congressional candidate and saying, “you know she was tops in her electrician apprenticeship class.” The neighbor nods and you can hear him thinking, “that’s good enough for me.”

There’s a commercial running on television right now that asks the question, “what if steelworkers ran the world?” It’s meant to be humorous, but in the ad this group of dirt covered, burley men fairly and efficiently take care of business in a manner you have to admire. What if steelworkers ran the world? The answer seems to be that it would be a better place.

There is little doubt we’ve become an increasing divided society. The most obvious marker has been the growing income disparity between average workers and top management. But economic equality is the smallest hope we’ve lost from democracy’s promise. We now readily accept education as occupational training, treating our children as future bricks in the road of commerce connecting industry and consumer. Respect for the arts, music and literature are gone, except when they lead to a commercial product. All that matters is generating workers with the tools in science and mathematics to keep the machine running. Why would a worker need the arts and humanities to do his or her job? These things are liable to encourage too much independent thinking.

It once was charged that nations encourage religion in order to drug the people and keep them in line. True enough, the practice of religion has often been stripped of its spirituality and made into a method of behavior control. Today the church has been eclipsed as chief “opium of the people” by action films, virtual reality games and mixed martial arts fighting. But inside many people lives a hunger for meaning that these cheap, hollow thrills can’t satisfy. If leaders in the church have their eyes open, they might see this as an opportunity to reassert the original purpose of faith, which is to create a new form of being out of simple flesh and blood.

Since the days of Machiavelli we’ve known that people who have enough of the expected comforts don’t often stop to consider how much greater life could be. But we could now be entering a new era in which our culture’s ability to deliver material benefits is in doubt. Instead of asking “what if steelworkers ran the world,” it might be time to imagine how the world would change if faith in God’s will drove reality. Can you imagine a world in which we awoke each day bathed in the joyful light of God’s Spirit?