AUTUMN, 2025

BERNARD S. GLUCKSTERN

AN IMPERATIVE PROSPECTIVE ENDEAVOR TO ENSURE AMERICA’S VIABILITY

I. The imminent fracturing of our democratic polity

I am formulating this initiative as our nation continues to reverberate from the  most recent horrific and heinous barbarity that was wrought on a campus in Utah, during an event whose principal purpose was to engage in civil and mutually respectful political dialogue and debate.

Charles Kirk is but the most recent tragic casualty in a cultural war that if unrestrained threatens to engulf our republic in a recrudescence of the conflict which erupted with ferocious severity and inflicted mammoth casualties on its participants, one hundred and sixty five years ago.

The innumerable cries and demands which have issued from so many in our political establishment that both condemn this assassination and fervently insist that our fellow citizens irrespective of their partisan allegiances or ideological loyalties must cease the use of violence as a mode of interaction with those whom they deem to be their political enemies, but instead substitute impassioned and respectful dialogue as the currency in which these disputes and disagreements are waged, rang out from every locale on the spectrum of our national body politic.

That these sentiments are both noble and crucial admonitions to our populace few would disagree, however, to expect as a result of these comments and statements that they will impact and substantively reduce the incidence and magnitude of violence in this era of our historical journey, is to be guilty of both a consummate naiveté and an unremitting embrace with fantastical social expectations.

In my view what is desperately required at this moment of the unraveling of the normative consensus which serves as the epistemological adhesive that binds our democracy together, is an exercise in focused, comprehensive, and collaborative intellectual inquiry, that seeks as its principal objective the formulation of a paradigm that the culture warrior combatants in our republic will embrace as an initiative that will both defuse the molten acrimony in which they are engaged, and serve (if implemented)  as a prospective future that will heal the grievances and repair the societal wounds of both those who comprise the ranks of the populists, and those who are dedicated to objectives of social justice.

In order to commence this activity, among the very first requirements to engage in this dialogue is the imperative necessity for all who participate, is to abandon the vocabularies in which these ideological conflicts are conducted.

“Owning the libs”, “oppressors and oppressed” and expressions of similar derision and contempt must be jettisoned.  They serve no purpose other than to inflame and enrage those who are so labeled, or intensify the enmity of those who are the architects of these judgements.  We must seek a language that will describe the political realities that are extant in terms that are accurate and objective in their fidelity to the contemporary socioeconomic circumstances, but are bereft of the insults and provocations of so much of the content of our social media.

To those who contend that this mode of discussion will neuter the normative component of our concerns and fervent aspirations for our republic, be assured that I am not advocating that we forsake or delete these crucial ethical considerations in our colloquy. Rather am I insisting that we conduct these discussions in a manner that expresses these perspectives and values in a vocabulary that is bereft of the vitriol and insults that will provoke rage and rejection.

To that constituency among us who raise strenuous objections to the agenda of those who advocate on behalf of DEI policies and initiatives, your concerns deserve legitimate examination and exploration

To those who contend that the ramifications of our historical journey have not eradicated racism as a tragic national stain on our legacy, with all the economic privations that that reality presupposes, so too must we investigate and empirically determine the validity of those assertions.

All substantive issues that inhere in the realm of the populist community, as well as those significant criticisms of our polity’s current social configurations within the ranks of the progressive orbit, are legitimate candidates for evaluation and analysis. 

These cognitive interactions will be undertaken not to absorb the time and energies of those participating for the purpose of ethereal academic debate or to provide a forum for clashing egos and personalities, but rather for the critical rationale and objective of formulating policies and programmatic initiatives that when implemented will convert acrimony into consensus, and fervent hostility into mutually agreeable proposals.

If we are to transcend the contemporary climate of mutual contempt, polarization, and a probable future that contains episodes of collective violence among our populace, a civic discourse that reflects respect, civility, and an authentic recognition that it is this mode of conduct that must shape and guide our exertions to accomplish this most crucial and noble of goals, must be imperatively deployed.

At the epicenter of these conversations will matters of economic inequality be addressed, immigration challenges, the impact of a nationally evolving universe of artificial intelligence, trade, commerce, and tariffs and their collective capabilities to materially effect our economy, and innumerable other topics about which there are warring perspectives and furious disagreements among our citizens.

Permit me however to provide an example of what in my view would be the most prudent approach to these dialogues. That the inheritance of slavery, Jim Crow instrumentalities, and other modalities of discrimination have negatively impacted   the economic realities and prospects of many among our African-American constituency, is acknowledged by broad sectors of our populace.

 However, rather than advocate for policy or programmatic initiatives specifically proposed to ameliorate the financial deprivation of  solely this segment of those who are impoverished or whose financial circumstances are most precarious, what should be introduced for consideration are those prospective panaceas and rehabilitative measures that will lift ALL in our nation who dwell in destitute material conditions. 

Utilizing this strategic approach in my view serves two crucial purposes; it will enable constructive dialogue to unfold because it will be conducted in vocabularies that are bereft of those terms and epithets that inflame and foster animosity, and thus it will garner the support of those who represent various elements of the dispossessed, be they rural white populists, proponents of the welfare of indigenous tribes, as well as those substantial accumulations of urban African-Americans who contend with a life of penury, as well as Hispanic concentrations and residents of Asian conclaves who exist in postures of indigence.

But perhaps most importantly it will be concrete empirical evidence that beyond our individual identities within the ethnic groups from which we emanate, we also extend our concern and desire to include every American regardless of race or religion, or lack of membership in any theological affiliation, to be substantive beneficiaries of those efficacious and transformative proposals we implement throughout our polity.

So too do I caution those who represent values which are conservative  in character to eschew such expressions as “woke”  or casting aspersions on those who reflect as their self-definition membership in the LGBTQ universe and the controversies which emanate from those identities, such as the  involvement of trans athletes in competitive sports events in which gender designation is central to the contest, as well as those disagreements which relate to the access of these contestants to those rest room facilities that are most appropriate.

The preceding does not comprise an exhaustive compilation of those issues and concerns that may be included for analysis and debate among the participants of this endeavor, they do however, embody those subjects that are currently embroiled in ferocious verbal combat, and are tragically contributing variables to the continuing episodes of political violence in which our culture has been engulfed, as well.

In the prior segments of this document I have delineated a prospective activity which if activated contains the potential to formulate comprehensive policy and programmatic initiatives that can significantly decrease the polarization and enmity that is extant in our democratic polity, and most importantly presuming the capacity of this entity to marshal and mobilize the requisite political coalitions of support throughout our republic, the various recommendations and proposals we can translate into institutional and programmatic realities will substantially mitigate the financial deprivations and social pathologies which plague so many  among us.

Thus, it is for these reasons that I hereby propose the establishment of The Center For Cultural Consensus, a dynamic entity dedicated to the creation and maintenance of a mutually civil and respectful dialogue among proponents and advocates of disparate normative principles and ideological opponents, in order to formulate and implement throughout our republic those compromises and agreements that both diminish the hostilities and conflict that is extant, and most importantly that fabricates sociopolitical paradigms and economic models that will ameliorate the financial insecurity and impoverishment of millions of our fellow citizens.

Moreover, this undertaking should be located within the Ivy League as a demonstration that “elitist” academic institutions are committed to engage in the critical challenges of this most fraught moment, by deploying their cognitive, financial, and public service capacities to defuse the potential lethality of the national conflict in which our citizens are participating, in which political adversaries are viewed as mortal enemies who must be vanquished whatever the cost, and they ascribe to every electoral contest and policy initiative they furiously advocate, existential importance.

However, in order to derive the maximum value from this endeavor it is imperative that this project link the sponsoring institution with a prominent respected conservative element of our nation’s academic realm, thus will this exercise  unfold beneath the supervision of a dyad of entities in a posture of administrative equivalence in which both populist and progressive participants are assured that their views and values, concerns and criticisms, and ultimately those solutions and compromises that are formulated, reflect a dynamic of parity between competing normative systems and ideologies.

II. Establishing this initiative on the campus of Brown University

Innate to that which comprises the founding essence of Brown University is the unassailable commitment to academic freedom, the crucial inherent independence of the student and the scholar, and the auspicious and innovative advocacy of a curriculum  which acknowledges virtually no restrictions, and is a staunch advocate of intellectual experimentation in all its forms and permutations.

Thus, in my view there does not exist an environment within the Ivy League that is intrinsically more receptive to this unprecedented prospective collaboration between progressive normative considerations and a conservative/populist value frame of reference, than is this august institution.

The importance of this activity to the welfare of this republic should it succeed could not be exaggerated given the current political climate. So too will a triumphant exercise in social scientific inquiry burnish Brown’s reputation to a  brilliant sheen.

Therefore, I am formally requesting of our most distinguished and competent president, Christina Paxson that you commence the planning process that will culminate in the establishment of this entity on our campus.

However you determine this endeavor should be structured and within what element of the university’s institutional configuration, I leave to your incomparably sophisticated capacity to formulate those decisions that are most appropriate, and contain the potential for unqualified success.

Among those that you appoint to this mechanism  I presume would there be designated representatives from the departments of political science, economics, sociology, computer sciences, psychology, as well as others from cognitive locales that you view as relevant given this entity’s mandate that would contribute significantly to  the total fulfillment of its mission.

Perhaps the most critical determination that must be addressed initially, is to identify that organization within the realm of conservative/populist academic entities that embodies the depth and breadth of intellectual resources and collegial temperament that Brown should invite to join with this initiative in an administrative posture as its co-chair.

Subsequent to accomplishing the creation of this joint institutional arrangement,  the planning process (now enlarged as the result  of the individual representatives which the collaborative organization has appointed), should begin the crucially important task of formulating its mission statement and the explication of the principal goals and objectives which this body will commit its entire repository of resources to accomplish.

Among these specific assignments will be the compilation of those issues and controversies that reside at the epicenter of our current state of conflicting political ideologies and the furious antagonisms which derive from those antithetical normative perspectives.

As the dialogues unfold in the weeks and months which this dynamic will consume as the spectrum of the various agenda items are explored and debated, (in postures of civility and mutual respect) it will be the transcendent aspiration of this colloquy to generate those compromises and agreements to these ferocious disputes that will produce the policy declarations, and programmatic proposals that if implemented will convert the polarization and estrangement among so many in our populace, to a national climate in which at the very least these initiatives will represent minimally satisfactory solutions, regardless of the cohort (i.e. progressive, conservative) to which they extend their allegiance.

Though some portion of these recommendations may require actions and financial resources from various elements of the federal bureaucracy, many others will involve entities within the private sector or the non-profit community, academic institutions, and components of the national healthcare system,

The participants of this activity shall not be limited to conventional nostrums or traditional approaches that were reflected in previous similar endeavors that grappled with these challenges, but rather shall be auspicious, daring, and enlarge the boundaries of pragmatic innovation and unprecedented experimentation that shall seek as their primary objective, to bind up our nation’s wounds and deploy institutional and programmatic vehicles that mitigate our societal afflictions and thus create a more perfect union.

However, the preceding enumeration of the mandate which this organization is charged with addressing is but the first of two imperative responsibilities. Once this paradigm for accomplishing a national reconciliation is finalized, it must be translated into an organic political reality in our nation.

In order to ensure its successful implementation throughout the breadth and depth of our culture, a comprehensive strategy that enlists as advocates and proponents of our exercise in applied social science, both the leaders of the various segments of our polity, i.e. public officials, corporate executives, those in the senior ranks of the non-profit universe,  educators, and entertainment celebrities, as well as our fellow citizens from every walk of life, must be mobilized to demand that this initiative become a vibrant reality at the epicenter of the affairs of our republic.

That this task is Herculean in character and politically fraught is to acknowledge what is its obvious reality. However, the existential necessity for an endeavor of this nature could not be more urgent.  We stand at a critical crossroads in this democracy; at a moment that may very well determine either the continued viability of our political system or its chaotic and violent unraveling.

Christina, I implore you to consider this proposal. Should you wish to alter or revise any aspect of its content, please do so, in order to maximize the probability of its ultimate success.

You have demonstrated in your recent negotiations with this administration your impregnable values and resilience, and most importantly the accomplishment of maintaining the historic virtues of those academic freedoms that were bequeathed to you when you assumed the presidency of this university.

Beyond the preceding enormously significant achievement you may now demonstrate to those in this nation who view institutions such as the one whose daily activities you supervise as indifferent to the concerns and welfare of so many in this society, that their perceptions in this regard are flawed, erroneous, and are completely bereft of merit.

Should you undertake a project of this nature you will contribute immeasurably to those forces which are desperately seeking to enable rational and respectful dialogue among those who view many among us not as political opponents, but as enemies who perceive the members of various ethnic groups as secondary in their value and importance, and who because of the emaciated and meager financial prospects to which they have access resent and vilify those who have been afforded pathways to a prodigious affluence and a concomitant social prominence.

Now, in this moment, stimulate the creation of an activity on our campus beneath Brown’s insignia, an effort for which the nation shall be enormously grateful, and at its conclusion, our populace will repudiate the notion that this “elitist” institution cares nothing about the lives and welfare of all who are fellow citizens except that miniscule quotient that have acquired substantial financial assets, distinguished educational honors , and a status within the rarefied precincts of our nation’s ruling class. 

Rather shall they embrace the seminal reality that at a moment of crisis and prospective dissolution, this university orchestrated a critical intellectual endeavor that mitigated the polarization and enmity, and provided those solutions and compromises to our culture that remedied these injustices and furnished a legacy which enabled the accomplishment of a dramatically pacified national geopolitical environment.

Christina, I beseech you to in some mode or manner precipitate the commencement of  this truly imperative activity, and at its conclusion when your hegemony as Brown’s president concludes they shall say about your tenure, her’s was an incomparable period of unequaled service to those within our community of scholars, the residents of Rhode Island, and most importantly to our democratic polity, and the conciliation of our populace, and the redress of those social injustices which we have endured since the inception of our glorious experiment in representative government our founding fathers brought forth  almost 250 years ago.