“Why do I have to do this? And why not?” Institutions, integrity, and citizenship under threat

Abstract

Ed Shapiro’s important and thought-provoking article deals with civic ethics and is organised around three critical points: a call (1) for taking personal authority in order to protect the group from (what is perceived as) its destructors (Why do I have to do this?); an offer for (2) doing it by being emphatic with the “enemy” (in what way is he right?); and (3) encouragement to reveal “active citizenship”. The discussion challenges those questions by asking: Do I have to do this?Always? And why me? Do I have to understand the other? Always? Under what conditions? And is it really possible, taking into account our unconscious attitudes towards “otherness”? The discussion refers to the timing and the sociopolitical con-text of Shapiro’s article—namely turbulent times and a deep disappointment of present-day leadership—and interprets his challenge as a call for the return of the individual almost as a “Nietzschean hero”—namely, to differentiate him/herself even from the group-as-a-whole. Some unconscious aspects of the challenge which Ed Shapiro puts before us are discussed, referring to the inherent tension between “what should be” and “what is actually happening”.