The challenge of any pluralistic society or community that includes diverse backgrounds, beliefs and values, is to find the common good and place it above the interests of any one person or group. At this time, however, our own pluralistic society is bitterly polarized. In the United States today, people are deeply divided in multiple ways: different political parties; regional and geographic divides; urban versus rural; racial and religious differences; and even educational attainment – where some of our sharpest divides exist between people who have gone to college and those who have not.
To continue as a pluralistic democratic republic committed to the best for all people, we must rededicate ourselves to being persons for and with others, including and especially those other people who are not part of our own group. Jesuit, Catholic colleges and universities like Loyola University Chicago have a unique opportunity to meet and address this divide.
In our Ignatian tradition, we seek the opportunity to listen, learn and understand by engaging with differing points of view. We believe that respectful discussion around difficult and complex issues results in deeper critical thinking skills and well-rounded citizens. This commitment to the intellectual strength and vitality of our community is rooted in the “presupposition” of good will that St. Ignatius of Loyola describes in Annotation 22 of the Spiritual Exercises:
“We ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s statement than to condemn it. Further, if we cannot interpret it favorably one should ask the other how the other means it. If that meaning is wrong, one should correct the person with love: and if that is not enough, one should search out every appropriate means through which, by understanding the statement in a good way, it may be saved.”
Entering the public square with this mindset takes courage. It takes a leap of faith that those who join you are willing to engage in meaningful dialogue and presuppose the best in what you have to say. When groups are as polarized from each other as they are today, it takes extraordinary courage to reach out to others. Jesuit colleges and universities shape our students to have this capacity.
Pursuit and love of the common good is an expression of civic virtue that embraces the needs, interests, and beliefs of other people – especially when they differ from our own. In other words, civic virtue is a high expression of being a person for and with others. When we pursue civic virtue, we explore the natural tension between the common good and individual freedoms. The right to participate in the public square equally with others cannot come at the expense of other people and their rights, most especially their own right to free speech.
This pursuit also requires us to consider how we define winning. In most arenas of life – such as sports, the electoral process, or a spelling bee – winning means coming in first. The common good, however, is rarely achieved by winner-takes-all metrics. The multiple demands and interests of diverse groups often require us to move forward with incremental success, achieving what progress we can at any given time. While we know that we must sometimes be prepared to compromise, too often, we view it only as a concession of our own beliefs and principles. But compromise is how we come to an agreement that charts a mutually acceptable path forward between different points of view that are inevitable in a pluralistic society.
In the public square, we need to remember that how we engage and respond is as important – perhaps more important – than what we say. This way of proceeding, fast disappearing from society at large, is expected of those receiving a Jesuit education. The single most important ingredient to positive civil discourse is listening. We first listen to the other’s point of view, and we then let the person know that we have heard them and understand their viewpoint. As we listen to others, we do so with the intent to understand, and not with the purpose of calculating how best to reply or retort with our own point of view.
Civil discourse is, at its core, an exercise in intellectual humility. When we engage with others by seeking to understand them, we humble ourselves and open ourselves to the possibility that we can learn from other people. Learning is as important a goal as persuasion. We learn when we are humble enough to recognize that truth often comes from testing competing ideas and viewpoints, and from struggling to reconcile differing points of view. As we engage with others, we acknowledge and celebrate the various identities that give us unique and equally valid perspectives of the world, including gender, racial, religious, political, and ideological identities.
There are times, places, and circumstances when discourse is especially challenging, such as times of great conflict between parties. Ahead of what is expected to be a contentious 2024 Presidential Election, Loyola continues to promote our successful and longstanding Loyola Votes initiative by encouraging our community, particularly students, to get informed and register to vote.
As both a right and a responsibility, voting is the ultimate expression of civil discourse. No amount of discourse, political action, or other participation can compensate for neglecting to exercise our right to vote on important issues of the day and the needs of our community. We inspire our students to participate in the democratic process as one of the most important ways to effect change in their communities.
Equally important for our Jesuit colleges and universities is to equip them with the ability to seek and find the common good grounded in a commitment to civil discourse that is most effective when rooted in our Jesuit ideals of reflection and solidarity with others.
By Philip Hale, Vice President for Civic Engagement & Government Affairs, Loyola University Chicago. An accomplished senior leader with more than thirty years of experience in advocacy, non-profit management, and fundraising and development efforts, Hale is a trained coalition-builder passionate about building and maintaining relationships to lead civic and community engagement efforts.