A farmer can’t make his plants grow, but he can create the conditions that lead to their flourishing. A society can’t make its citizens virtuous, but it can nurture the institutions that lead to virtuous citizens.
Great thinkers in Western civilization have long noted the importance of virtue. In Politics, Aristotle declared, “The best life, both for individuals and states, is the life of virtue, when virtue has external goods enough for the performance of good actions.”
“Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it,” Aristotle wrote in Nicomachean Ethics. Practically, that means “virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.”
Contained in that clunky English is a key insight. Virtue requires ascertaining truth and moving toward it with actions. This presupposes that truth is objective, not a personal possession. This fits in with an observation the great Roman statesman Cicero once made. He contrasted virtuous citizens with those who cared “more for his own interests than for those of the republic.”
Perhaps you can start to see the link between liberty and virtue. A man with the ability to do as he chooses can use that ability to oppress others. Or, as Cicero warned, he could make self-centered choices that undermine the governing system that protects liberty more broadly. Since freedom is rare, both are serious threats.
A tyrannical government may compel subservience from its citizens by removing their ability to take some destructive actions. The result may look virtuous, but coercion doesn’t create virtue by compelling conformity.
Our Founding Fathers talked about the importance of virtue and extended it to Christianity, the ubiquitous religion in the colonies at the time.
In 1776, John Adams declared, “The happiness of society is the end of government.” But his definition may surprise you. He wrote, “All sober enquiries after truth, ancient and modern, Pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity consists in virtue.” This puts the “pursuit of happiness” in a new light.
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports,” George Washington said in his 1796 Farewell Address.
In a 1798 letter, Adams explained why morality and religion are essential to check human passions. Without them, human vices “would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The country has spent decades rejecting the virtue and Christian principles that the country was founded on. A deeply divided country only seems to agree that the government isn’t working as it should. This is a major reason why.
Government can’t make individuals virtuous, but it can stop undermining the institutions, like the family and churches, that once inculcated virtue in the next generation. Government schools once taught students the Bible. Now those schools undermine parents, the country and even the notion of truth.
A people without virtue shouldn’t expect to enjoy the blessings of liberty indefinitely. That’s a crisis to jump in and fix, not a foregone conclusion to observe passively. Next week, I’ll look at the difference between liberty and license.
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.
