In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonanthan Haidt reveals a lot of good research on the psychology and philosophy of humans. Subtitled Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, this self-proclaimed Jewish atheist, draws upon ancient religious text and cultures as well as modern psychology to explain why we are they way we are. It’s worth picking up, if you’re interested in psychology, religion, philosophy, morals, ethics and character-building. Even more so if you’re interested in looking at it through from a camp of either conservative or liberal. You’ll either hate it or love it.

One of his most interesting ideas is a comparison of human culture to other ultra-socials societies in the animal world. Stumping those who might look to disparage another liberal’s reputation based on his belief that man evolved from primates, Haidt points out that socially, we behave much more like bees and ants in our division of labor. Many of us must be slave away in the service industries, others function as the hive-keepers, a few end up being served. It’s a culture based on reciprocity, acceptance and functionality.

What separates man (among the many of obviously things) from these ultra-social societies (and other animals, of course) is the human being’s capacity to contemplate the divine, an other dimension which one understands cannot fully know, though a person can experience it when seeking to practice living a moral and virtuous life. It’s the practicing, not the achieving that’s important here. In a speculative world where children are reared without moral wisdom experienced within a community, leads to anomie. Something, perhaps, we are beginning to experience when youth are expected to raise themselves.
Haidt writes: “You can grow vegetables hydroponically, but even then you have to add nutrients to the water. Asking children to grow virtues hydroponically, looking only within themselves for guidance, is like asking each one to invent a personal language—a pointless and isolating task if there is no community with whom to speak” (page 176).

So, where do we find the stuff to practice with, how do we demonstrate through practice morals and virtue and character: In our daily lives, in our interactions with other people, in our ultra-social behavior.
Haidt is a consensus builder when it comes to rearing children.   

He writes (page 179),
“…Franklin may be right that leadership on virtue can never come from the major political actors; it will have to come from a movement of people, such as the people of a town who come together and agree to create a moral coherence across the many areas of children’s lives.
…such movements are happening now….they involve the cooperation of all parties to child-rearing—parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders, and the children themselves—who come to consensus on a “character” describing the community’s shared understandings, obligations, and values and committing all parties to expect and uphold the same high standards of behavior in all settings.”

Haidt has a lot more to say, especially on the benefits of people participating in engaging conversations in a wide variety of forums (classrooms, professional and personal lives) that endear us, all of whom come from diverse races, religions, ages, genders and all of those other obvious facts that can tend to separate, to each other, precisely because of these differences.—MA