Johnson didn't look (or act) like a Kumbaya kinda guy.
Given by a foul-mouthed guy who could be a brutal wheeler-dealer, was an expert political manipulator, and took meetings while sitting on the can with the bathroom door open, why does the Great Society speech have such an evangelizing quality? Soaring rhetoric, a focus on personal meaning—the president was asking folks to seek out something better, something beyond individual wants and needs. A rich life of the mind, preserving nature, creativity, words like "wonder," destiny," and "needs of the spirit"—we didn't think LBJ had it in him.
Maybe he'd listened to enough speeches by Dr. King to pull it off.
Actually, Johnson was a devoutly religious Christian. According to his friends and pastors, he really believed that these Great Society aspirations were moral imperatives, all of them a version of "Love thy neighbor" (source). He could quote the Bible as well as anybody and didn't have to be convinced by Dr. King or anyone else that God intended all people to be dealt with justly and compassionately. That was a non-negotiable article of faith for LBJ.
In a way, this emphasis on personal meaning and spiritual fulfillment was the same spirit of the sixties that spawned the youth movement. People were looking for meaning in a materialistic world that didn't seem to be making their parents totally happy. The University of Michigan grads were the perfect audience for pitching these ideas, because every student sitting there was wondering what their future would hold and how they'd find their purpose in life.
At least that's what we're hoping they were contemplating. Maybe they were just wondering if their roommate remembered to pick up the keg.
Questions About Spirituality
- How do art and natural beauty make a society great?
- How does creativity benefit a society?
- Should government play a role in funding arts and humanities programs? Why or why not?
Chew on This
Bachelor's degrees in the humanities peaked several years after this speech. It's been mostly downhill ever since.
Johnson's reverence for nature laid the foundation for the modern environmental movement with landmark legislation on land conservation and resource management. Thanks, Lady Bird.