In a world of immense power—from nuclear weapons to AI—Stephen Bauman asks a harder question: where is our wisdom?This episode reflects on humility, conscience, and the call to hold ourselves accountable as we seek the common good.
Epic Fury
We’ve been hearing a lot from generals and other armed services officers in recent months. They mostly engage geo-political debates and tactical operations concerning the pros and cons of the deployment of our military. You likely have a strongly held point of view about our current operation called Epic Fury in Iran. I know I do. But as a kind of counterpoint to today’s chaos, I came across this observation from General Omar Bradley of World War II fame and America’s first Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff. With a crisp, blunt assessment in 1948, just a few years following the Hiroshima devastation, he noted that, “The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.” Could we amend that last sentence today by adding AI gods with nuclear giants and ethical infants??
Now I don’t know if General Bradley had in mind his own nation as well as others, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he did, because every truly wise person I’ve ever known has their wisdom grounded in humility. Wisdom and humility always show up together. Wise persons have a bead on their own weaknesses and vulnerabilities as well as their strengths. And they call them out.
We now say that the United States is the only real superpower left on the world stage, that our military and economy have no equal. We know that in the realm of manifest power we are strong. We have bombs and ships and planes and drones galore, as well as the almighty dollar! But when it comes to wisdom, conscience and ethics, organically rooted in humility--wow, that’s in very short supply. In fact, it seems the temper of the moment is the exact opposite of humility--arrogant, officious, discriminatory.
As usual though, I like to bring my observations down to earth in our own local geographies, wherever they happen to be. It’s extremely easy to get caught up in angry finger-pointing algorithms that wind up deflecting us from quietly considering our own lives and behaviors--as in, my posturing and preening in my own environments of work, home and community.
This kind of authentic self-awareness doesn’t keep us from active engagement with our cultural/political moment. No, we owe it to all that we highly value to defend our democracy and promote the common good, but... in the meantime, holding ourselves accountable in the manner we seek to hold our politicians and generals, honoring our strengths by owning our weakness and vulnerability.
The wisdom of the nation has its roots embedded within the commitments of its citizens like you and me.
