Towards a Strategy of Prevention
Towards a Strategy of Prevention
by Gerald L. Campbell
Senior Advisor to the Director
United States Information Agency, 1985-1990
For nearly four decades, America's approach to social problems has been dominated by a scientific methodology and culture whose practical assumptions require that the material conditions associated with specific human behaviors are to be treated as causes of those behaviors independent of a more fundamental causal connection to the spiritual dynamics of the human person.
This scientific perspective, by denying the causal relationship between the spiritual and human behavior, substantially diminishes the perceived reality of the individual and transforms it into a rough caricature of itself. Devoid of spiritual content, freedom, and dignity, the individual is by methodological requirements reduced to a kind of 'empty vessel' whose sole function in the scheme of research is to act as a locus wherein social and economic forces interact and supposedly determine the course of one's behavior.
Policy-makers, acting within this mechanistic framework, have tended to unduly magnify the role that material causation plays in determining the course of human conduct. Indeed, they have accepted the view that the cause of socially dysfunctional behaviors can be traced to an observed set of social and economic conditions that are correlated to each of these behaviors. Moreover, they have bought into the illusion that such behaviors can be rectified through the proper management of a complex system of incentives and disincentives designed to alleviate the impact these material conditions supposedly have on human conduct.
But, there is a basic fallacy here. The actual causes of behavior are not the same as the material conditions correlated to such behaviors. Correlations only reflect causal activity existing at some deeper level of human reality.
And so, the limitation of this science-based approach for prevention lies in its failure to recognize that there is an inherent spiritual dimension to human problems which is organically and causally related to the material conditions and behavior of the individual. The simple truth is that at their core social problems reflect a radical breakdown in fundamental human relationships (love, compassion, understanding, and mercy), and any attempt to prevent socially dysfunctional behaviors requires a strengthening of those spiritual relationships in the day-to-day life of individuals, families, neighborhoods, institutions, and ultimately human community.
Given the organic nature of human reality, then, it is imperative that we strive to develop a more comprehensive prevention strategy that will address the socio-economic conditions and behavior of the individual within the spiritual context in which they originate. This strategy of prevention need not be inconsistent with the constitutional separation of church and state. All that is required is that we ask deeper questions and strive to develop through reason a more profound understanding of the spiritual dynamics of human behavior as they unfold in the concrete lives of individuals.
About the Author
Gerald L. Campbell served as senior staff to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine years. He became Senior Advisor to the Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA) under President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush.
Campbell went on to serve the administration of President George Bush and later, he served Texas Governor Bush as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of Health at the Texas Department of Health in Austin.