Liberty Without Virtue Leads to Ruin ｜ 8⧸8⧸24
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
155.20142
Summary
In many progressive cities across the U.S., heroin addicts are free to spend their days shooting up while living in the squalor of homeless encampments that now line urban streets. But only the most deranged ideologue would see this as a blessing.
Transcript
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Freedom in the Abstract makes for a very stupid god.
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In many progressive cities across the United States,
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heroin addicts are free to spend their days shooting up
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while living in the squalor of homeless encampments that now line urban streets.
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But only the most deranged ideologue would see this as a blessing.
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Anyone who truly understands human nature knows that our impulse is to make ourselves slaves in one manner or another.
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Left entirely to our own devices, the isolated individual tends to suffer from a thirst for annihilation,
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indulging in excess or deprivation of some kind that will bring ruin.
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This tragic understanding of the human condition brought most pre-modern thinkers to the conclusion that ordered liberty was the ideal,
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but that this day could only be achieved through the cultivation of virtue.
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Americans have been taught to repeat endless slogans about rights and freedoms,
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and this has created a nation hungry for the fruit of a tree that was left to wither long ago.
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The error from the left is profound but obvious, so we'll begin there.
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The progressive worldview is utopian, denying man's tragic nature
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and assuming that all negative outcomes are the function of a faulty system.
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Men are born free after all, but find themselves chained to traditions, religions, families, and economic systems that oppress them.
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The individual requires a powerful state that can protect an ever-expanding list of rights
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which will free everyone to pursue their true and excellent nature.
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When the free individual ends up miserable without family or purpose,
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filling their dull lives with consumption and distraction,
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the progressive is incapable of re-examining their priors.
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Capitalism, the patriarchy, Christianity, whiteness, or some other abstract enemy is to blame,
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and the system demands more power so it can guarantee additional rights or freedoms.
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On the right, the error is more subtle but no less serious.
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Conservatives and libertarians tend to see liberty as the goal,
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but often share the same confusion about how this is to be achieved.
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While they may disagree about the final size or shape of the state,
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both generally agree that smaller government bound by constitutional principles
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The mistake here lies in the order of operations.
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rather than understanding that liberty can only be enjoyed
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by a people who have first cultivated a high degree of virtue.
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Niccolo Machiavelli is famous for his book The Prince,
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where the political philosopher advises prospective monarchs
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This leads most readers to believe that the Florentine diplomat
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when in truth Machiavelli championed the superior nature of republican government
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in his less infamous but more profound work, Discourses on Livy.
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For Machiavelli, the key factor that made republican government possible
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Under a monarchy, the people didn't need to practice a high degree of self-discipline.
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settling disputes and making the critical decisions
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even if they didn't have the character to rule themselves.
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Order is more necessary for human flourishing than freedom,
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under the benefit of a stable civilization often forget.
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In a republic, there are still those that govern,
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but the people have a much larger degree of input on how the state operates.
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then they will simply demand more money and benefits from the state
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which they are incapable of obtaining on their own.
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because the people are already bound together by a shared moral vision
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The Founding Fathers were very aware of this limitation,
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our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
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It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.
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but to keep it requires a dedication not just to self-governance,
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Ordered liberty is not the freedom to pursue every base desire,
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but must exercise that virtue by pursuing the good
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in relation to friends, family, religion, and business.
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but his reputation as a ruthless political realist
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The philosopher understood that the establishment of order
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The United States itself was born out of a monarchy
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but those people had obtained a level of virtue
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The resulting collapse of public and private morality
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because they've lost the capacity to keep order,
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and our ruling elites have gone out of their way