"Not My Circus, Not My Monkey." Responsibility, the Unmoored Self, and Robert Mueller's Report

Is it possible to reflect theologically on the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election? You be the judge.

We start with the Mueller report, and then take an excursion to the meaning of moral decline and renewal in the current American context.

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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:

00:16    Shayna forgets Chris’s name.

01:25    Imagine that the Mueller report is not the story, but is only a chapter in a larger story. What would the larger story be?

02:25    If America is in moral decline, how would you characterize the realm of the “moral?” Is it just about breaking rules, or do rules arise from a deeper sense of our interrelatedness?

05:33    Do leaders bear a special responsibility to uphold moral and ethical standards? Why?

10:00    Chris returns to the opioid disaster. Isn’t experiencing one’s individual self as being disconnected from any higher authority, and seeing one’s individual self as being beholden to nothing and to no one, similar in both the power-hungry operative and the suicidal addict?

15:53    What is a functionally nihilistic culture, and what are the signs that we are living in one?

17:15    What is responsibility, and how is it breaking down? “Not my circus, not my monkey.” What happens if we live this way?

22:40    Chris asserts that our politics will change only after our culture changes. True or false?