On "The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts"

(Santa Fe, NM) – I have had a tumultuous time at Saint John’s College (NM) (S.J.C.), since August 15th, 2024- when I arrived at Santa Fe, in order to prepare myself for one of the most rigorous curriculum in the country, and the oldest Liberal Arts college in the country (founded in 1696 in Annapolis). I found very quickly that my understanding of myself, and in fact, the understanding of my own mental illnesses, may have been misguided. I also found that the people at this college, whilst being smart in many ways, were generally not as wise as I had hoped for them to be. 

This should not have surprised me, and it certainly didn’t surprise my dad, when I told him this thought one day on “Johnnie Family Weekend”, this being said, none of this should be the main point of my opinion piece. The College, whilst being intense and at points seemingly overwhelming, did not do any of this to me, my life as I have lived it is what brought me here. In many good ways, of course- but also notably, in many ways that are not ‘good’. 

This now brings me to the main point of why I’m actually trying to write this op-ed, my raison-d’etre, if you will. My inspiration for this text is Iris Murdoch’s “The Sovereignty Of Good: over other concepts”, it being the topic for an All-College Seminar in some coming days. I want to reflect, for an audience not solely composed of Johnnies, about the irony of this text, in the context of how it has been presented.  

As Iris Murdoch describes it, “good” is in fact an academic concept that should be used more often. It stands in stark contrast to Kantian ethics, and other such things, that describe humanity as the center of existence, and, notably, it should not be seen as a Romantic concept. Romantic, in this case, referring to Romantic literature, and not the idea of romance, which thankfully Murdoch does not touch on (thankfully, as love is an even less well defined concept then good!). The main point of the text I am referring to, is simple, that good should override other concepts of morality, and through a Platonist approach, Murdoch is able to grasp onto something that many today somehow fail to understand. That the point of life is not to do anything but to better other people’s existence, and that this philosophy, while making a good moral and ethical one, depressingly cannot be applied into today’s concepts of politics. 

Bringing this to my main point, the irony of this text being shown to us, students, is simple. The College (S.J.C.) is currently involved in a Labor-Rights dispute, against their own students. I believe that no one, from any perspective, can define this as good. I put it simply when I tried to report on the varying perspective of students at the college, “we deserve better than what we already have”, to add onto my own words, what we have today at the College, is not inherently unique. There are Labor rights disputes everywhere in the country, there are people fighting for their right to life, dignity, and equity, everywhere. That being said, this college, when it was pitched to me a mere few months ago, when I was trying to make something of myself, from what I truly believed was nothing, should be something different. 

My Dad, who has friends that once went to this college, believed that it would be something different for me (he still to this day believes it). That being said, to quote an upperclassman that was both involved in the struggle to unionize. And later revoked their union card due to the struggles and trials of the college and union struggling for power over what they both see as something inherently belonging to them, “There Is No Johnnie Way”. 

While I could quote my friends angered and anonymous response to someone, doing what my source called “freshman sh*t”, in writing the (as far as I am aware also anonymous) “What is the Johnnie Way?” I will not. I would rather spend time reviewing why there is no Johnnie Way. Why this may even be a good thing for Johnnies, and how this is relevant to broader American culture since the 1960’s, how we went from hippies, to yuppies, to cottage-core. And why America is the way that it is, and also, why as a first-generation American, born in New York City, I never will truly feel American. At least not in the same way that you might. 

I would like to see there being no Johnnie way, as a reflection of American culture in the years since the Santa Fe campus of S.J.C. was founded, one that went from a long and hard-fought battle for the rights of queer, and non-white folks; to a culture that is now contemplating whether “mass deportation” is the way to solve the housing crisis. A culture that went, from my childhood to today, of having even the most right-wing for the Presidency at the time, believing that he would go to a gay marriage (Donald Trump in 2015) to my family now genuinely wondering, despite having been citizens for decades, and me being born in the United States, whether we will be included in these Mass Deporation schemes. Perhaps even more worryingly, if I were to guess, I would assume that I will be deported, in some way. We live in times that are, for America, and St. John’s, not different to how it must’ve felt in Europe in the 1930s. We are in fact, hallmarks of something of the past (for St. Johns, the tradition of Liberal education, for America, the vanquishers of the Cold War) , but as the future comes, what will we become?

It seems that the current American government, and whomever (god-willing it’ll be Harris), succeeds in attaining the Presidency, are both willing and able to destroy the culture of euphoria that has come after the pandemic, and replace it with a paranoiac culture, one where we do not trust one another for whatever reason we see fit. That is not the culture that I grew up in, nor is it one I will ever be willing to accept. This essay, perhaps started as a criticism of the college I go to, but it really shouldn’t be taken as that. This essay, should in fact, make you reflect on yourself. Make you think of what you do, when no-one is looking, whether you think you do things for the sake of goodness, or the sake of yourself. Perhaps I am underestimating the good-ness of the administrators of the college and the Biden Administration, I pray every day that I am, but I know America well enough to know that America’s culture has changed after 8 years of the Trump-centered political discussion. Our choice in this upcoming election is very clear, the sovereignty of Good, or the simpleness of destruction.