Virtue vs. Vice: Self-Control & Gluttony

"It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue
in the people." - Richard Henry Lee, letter to Colonel Martin Pickett, March 5,
1786

Time for me to address the second in the series of virtues and vices. To recap, our Founders realized and understood that for a people to be truly free, they must be virtuous. And in the time of the founding of America, the people knew instinctively what is virtue and what is not on a much wider scale than we do today. They were taught virtue by their parents and in the pew at church. They also learned it in school.

Hard to say that it is being taught now outside the confines of a church, and even then some places are suspect.

Gluttony is traditionally considered the overindulgence of food and/or drink to excess, and withholding from the needy is also listed as gluttony. It's virtue, self-control, is also better described as moderation. Basically, it's taking in what you need and within a reasonable limit.

I can personally attest to gluttony. I'm a big guy - for now, anyway. I like food, it's how I got this way. And our society caters to that desire. Buffets, bigger and bigger menu items, more rich and decadent things available. And in the world of drink, just look at the mind-numbing selection of beer, wine, and liquors out there. If you enjoy these things, you can go forever without getting bored.

And so I did. And, not surprisingly, my body is paying the price. Aside from being overweight, I have Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. I pretty much stopped drinking, partly due to financial reasons, partly due to the horrible person I become when I overindulge.

So I have a choice to make: keep eating and drinking like I had been, or die young and miss out on my family. I chose option A, and am glad to say I've dropped under 300 for the first time in 5 years. It's a long road ahead of me, but I know from previous experience that eating right and losing some more weight will get me off the medicines and make me (as well as my sons) an awful lot happier.

But step back and see how our culture views these things - are we shown that self-control in any sense is a good thing? Not really. We're told we need the quintuple-stacker burger with bacon and cheese, or we need the huge tankard of ale with our 32 ounce steak. Throw in a 2-pound slab of cheesecake for dessert, boss - you deserve it! Now when we go out and I order a salad or something light, I get a look like I'm insane. If my kids want a kids' meal at one of the fast food joints, either I order something really light (at Wendy's, I admit - a chili and a side salad work well for me) or I just don't order anything. And I see the weird look from the cashier. "How's the fat guy not ordering a Baconator?" they wonder.

It spreads beyond food and drink. We have to have that faster car. We need to have a bigger engine. We need the bells and whistles. A car is not a car unless it has leather seats, a GPS, a home theater and a dashboard hibachi! Honestly, as long as the thing gets me from point A to point B I don't care if it's held together with duct tape or has wood paneling. (Another point of reference, my first ride HAD wood paneling. Driving a wood-panel station wagon in high school does wonders for the social life.)

We MUST have that giant flatscreen with picture-in-picture-in-picture. We NEED that NFL package to see all the games as they happen, not that it's possible to comprehend it all at once.

Our lack of self-control has driven us to the brink of financial and medical ruin. We've spent fortunes on dining out, on fancier equipment and cars, on things we really don't have any sane use for. Many of us have eaten and drunk ourselves to poor health. And a lot of people are probably banking on government-run health care to avoid having to directly pay the bills.

All because we as a people have forgotten how to say "No, thank you" and instead gorged at the trough.

How do you turn back from the abyss? It's easy to say, not always easy to do, as virtue often is. Say no to the things you want but do not need. People are learning this now with the banking nightmare. More and more people are saving instead of spending, and it's driving the banks and businesses insane. Business and banking grew because of the loose wallets of a LOT of people, and now that people are reining it in, they are suffering and in turn cranking up the heat trying to get people to spend.

Restaurants and bars suffer too. Turnout there is shrinking nationally. Places locally which used to have a wait time of hours now have little or no waits most nights. Instead of dining out, people are staying home or having friends over.

We're wising up, and it's a good thing.

- F. D. for Two Joe Schmoes