What is "virtue"?

As I said in the last post, America has strayed from its foundation, and everyone knows it. What not everyone knows is that our foundation is based on a solid morality and virtue, as the writings of the Founders will clearly attest. A lot of people on the Left want to equate this with some sort of theocracy or forced belief in religion. While our principles are based in Judeo-Christian morality, there's no compulsion to believe in any given doctrine. The virtue and morality the Founders spoke of is (or at least once was) held universally among all people.

Being a Catholic, I can go on the virtues listed in the Catechism. There are 7 virtues corresponding to the "Seven Deadly Sins", and one more which encompasses all others. They are, with their corresponding vices:

Purity -- Lust
Self-Control -- Gluttony
Charity -- Greed
Persistence -- Sloth
Patience -- Wrath
Kindness -- Envy
Humility -- Pride

Justice -- Corruption

The issue with America these days is a lack of the virtue and an overabundance of the vice.

Purity is mocked as "unrealistic" while lust is held up as desirable. One only need watch TV to see this.

Self-control is considered boring, gluttony is admired - look at the buffets, look at the portions served in restaurants.

Do I really need to explain Charity versus Greed? Washington calls its greed charity and our charity greed because we're not giving to them.

Persistence is punished now - our businesses are held in contempt while we are told it's "patriotic" to redistribute hard-earned wealth to people who have done nothing to earn it in some misguided attempt to "equalize" everything.

Patience is shunned, we're a society that wants, no, DEMANDS instant gratification. And if we don't get what we want, when we want it, we take it out on anyone near us. Road rage, air rage, fill-in-the-blank rage...America is very angry.

Kindness is seen as weakness most of the time. I can at least say that kindness is the most respected of the virtues, from what I've seen, but it is still overshadowed by its vice. Envy rules our petty minds - look at the "reality" shows which follow around the super-rich and spoiled elites. They are presented as having the life we should all want, and I've seen more than a few people overextend themselves to try to live like they do.

Humility does not exist in Washington, or in too many other places. People are quick to thump their chests and shout about all they do. No one can silently just do the right thing. People who do good are usually looking for a camera or attention out of the corner of their eye. In the work world it's even worse. No one can just do the job and be part of the team. Everyone is standing on a soapbox shouting about what they do, and often times denigrating the accomplishments of others. Pride is not only shown like this. In a lot of ways, people think they know better than the Creator, deciding who is and is not worthy of life.

Justice is the all-encompassing virtue - justice is when people are treated equally under the law. Remember, justice is not a respecter of people, it is a respecter of the law. What we have now is corruption in many forms. Groups are pushing to have their agenda favored over others, the Left loves to have its own special victim classes, who are perpetually oppressed by some Big Bad Oppressor. Our elected officials no longer go in with the intent to serve the people, they go in only to serve themselves and find ways to stay in office to amass power and money.

The way things need to be in order to work is inverted. I will try to cover each of these in more detail in the next posts.

F.D. for Two Joe Schmoes
Crossposted on Grizzly Groundswell

Addressing the Root Cause

One doesn't need to read much beyond the headline blurbs on the Drudge Report to see that things are not well in this world, and America in particular is in a freefall from Liberty to Tyranny.

While there are many groups forming at the grassroots level to fight what is apparently Obama's mad dash to turn the US into a socialist state - and those groups are full of wonderful people - the root cause of our malaise needs to be addressed and tended to, otherwise what we have is the equivalent of a doctor treating the symptoms while ignoring what is causing them.

In our case, it's pretty simple: America started off as a nation of virtue, and we've fallen away from that virtuous nature. The Left is blaming capitalism for the mess we're in. Capitalism itself isn't to blame. Rather, it's a capitalism that is not connected to moral and virtuous behavior. When you have people out solely to make a buck, consequences be damned, you're no better off than you would be under a socialist or communist state. I'm not referring to the "evil" businessmen who make huge profits. I'm talking more like the scumbags like Bernie Madoff who use the hope of making a profit as a way to screw people out of their savings.

Don't get me wrong, the people who got screwed really should have done their homework and investigated the thing before they threw down their cash. But the real issue is that you get people who lack honor or virtue or any sense of morality who give the rest of us a bad name.

Virtue is also sorely lacking in our media. The idolatry of Obama worship aside, look at what mainstream Hollywood puts out. My wife loves watching movies with me. Most of the stuff we rent is so horrible that we have to wait for the kids to be in bed - the level of violence and sexuality is too much. I don't even enjoy most of the stuff coming out. And yet they balk when movies like Fireproof come out with a positive message and do well.

Look at MTV and other media aimed at our youth - right is wrong, sacred is profane, the truth is called a lie and lies are held up as truth.

And look at the pigs at the Federal trough now. Compare them to the example that men like George Washington set. He came from money but asked for nothing when called to serve. They offered to make him a King, but he refused. He did not have term limits but voluntarily stepped down after two terms.

Name one politician out there who would do that today. I love a few of the solid conservatives who know and uphold our Constitution, but even they, I'd wager, wouldn't part with that juicy salary or step down after two terms.

Our Founders did not put term limits or salary requirements in the law, because back then they were men of honor who would not abuse the trust with which they were given, and it was their hope and belief that Americans would consistently place the best people into public service and not establish a "ruling class" of sorts where people get in based on connections and wealth - which is exactly where we are now.

Perhaps they assumed these things since they all fought alongside one another and by defying the British Crown, placed their very lives in jeopardy. Perhaps we will have to repeat that sacrifice in order to restore virtue to our public servants. Will it have to come to defiance of King Barack and placing our lives in danger to protect the Liberty we were given by God, and not by government?

As a nation, we've turned our back to our Creator, from whom our rights come. We no longer acknowledge God in the public square, partly out of fear of the Left's thought police and being labeled as "intolerant", and partly out of our own pride.

In future articles, I will attempt to go over some virtues and principles and how we've straed from them.

In short for now - we as a people need to hunble ourselves. We are NOT as great as we think. We owe everything we have to the God who created us, and we need to defer to His law. We need to stop allowing government to tell us what we can and can not do, and to stop wasting our children's inheritance on the selfish wants of the moment. We need to hold ourselves accountable for our own mess and work to get out of it, not to mortgage tomorrow on a "maybe" fix for today.

We've lost our souls, and we need to reclaim them.

F.D. for Two Joe Schmoes
Crossposted on Grizzly Groundswell