The Auron MacIntyre Show - Liberty Without Virtue Leads to Ruin ｜ 8⧸8⧸24

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00:00:30.000 Freedom in the Abstract makes for a very stupid god.

00:00:41.760 In many progressive cities across the United States,

00:00:44.600 heroin addicts are free to spend their days shooting up

00:00:47.180 while living in the squalor of homeless encampments that now line urban streets.

00:00:52.220 But only the most deranged ideologue would see this as a blessing.

00:00:55.900 Anyone who truly understands human nature knows that our impulse is to make ourselves slaves in one manner or another.

00:01:04.860 Left entirely to our own devices, the isolated individual tends to suffer from a thirst for annihilation,

00:01:11.740 indulging in excess or deprivation of some kind that will bring ruin.

00:01:15.920 This tragic understanding of the human condition brought most pre-modern thinkers to the conclusion that ordered liberty was the ideal,

00:01:25.160 but that this day could only be achieved through the cultivation of virtue.

00:01:29.480 Americans have been taught to repeat endless slogans about rights and freedoms, 0.71

00:01:33.740 but very little about the necessity of virtue,

00:01:36.560 and this has created a nation hungry for the fruit of a tree that was left to wither long ago.

00:01:43.300 The error from the left is profound but obvious, so we'll begin there.

00:01:48.520 The progressive worldview is utopian, denying man's tragic nature

00:01:52.140 and assuming that all negative outcomes are the function of a faulty system.

00:01:56.240 Men are born free after all, but find themselves chained to traditions, religions, families, and economic systems that oppress them.

00:02:05.620 The individual requires a powerful state that can protect an ever-expanding list of rights

00:02:10.920 which will free everyone to pursue their true and excellent nature.

00:02:15.480 When the free individual ends up miserable without family or purpose,

00:02:19.600 filling their dull lives with consumption and distraction,

00:02:22.440 the progressive is incapable of re-examining their priors.

00:02:27.020 Capitalism, the patriarchy, Christianity, whiteness, or some other abstract enemy is to blame, 0.97

00:02:33.300 and the system demands more power so it can guarantee additional rights or freedoms.

00:02:38.920 On the right, the error is more subtle but no less serious.

00:02:43.520 Conservatives and libertarians tend to see liberty as the goal,

00:02:47.100 but often share the same confusion about how this is to be achieved.

00:02:51.760 While they may disagree about the final size or shape of the state,

00:02:55.120 both generally agree that smaller government bound by constitutional principles

00:03:00.060 is the key to obtaining the desired outcome.

00:03:03.840 The mistake here lies in the order of operations.

00:03:07.560 Assuming that virtue is the result of liberty,

00:03:10.700 rather than understanding that liberty can only be enjoyed

00:03:13.900 by a people who have first cultivated a high degree of virtue.

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00:03:49.160 Niccolo Machiavelli is famous for his book The Prince,

00:03:52.400 where the political philosopher advises prospective monarchs

00:03:55.720 on how to gain and retain power.

00:03:58.420 This leads most readers to believe that the Florentine diplomat

00:04:01.540 was a supporter of autocracy,

00:04:03.160 when in truth Machiavelli championed the superior nature of republican government

00:04:08.100 in his less infamous but more profound work, Discourses on Livy.

00:04:13.340 For Machiavelli, the key factor that made republican government possible

00:04:17.080 was the virtue of the people.

00:04:19.420 Under a monarchy, the people didn't need to practice a high degree of self-discipline.

00:04:23.720 The king acted as a father to the nation,

00:04:26.080 settling disputes and making the critical decisions

00:04:28.460 that required foresight and discipline.

00:04:31.240 The king provided order,

00:04:32.460 and that order allowed the people to prosper

00:04:34.880 even if they didn't have the character to rule themselves.

00:04:38.900 Order is more necessary for human flourishing than freedom,

00:04:42.160 a lesson that many who have always lived

00:04:44.360 under the benefit of a stable civilization often forget.

00:04:48.640 In a republic, there are still those that govern,

00:04:51.720 but the people have a much larger degree of input on how the state operates.

00:04:56.360 If the people are weak or frivolous,

00:04:58.620 then they will simply demand more money and benefits from the state

00:05:01.640 which they are incapable of obtaining on their own.

00:05:04.920 In an ideal republic, the government is small

00:05:07.540 because the people are already bound together by a shared moral vision

00:05:11.580 that allows them to cultivate virtue.

00:05:14.260 The Founding Fathers were very aware of this limitation,

00:05:17.460 which is why John Adams famously stated,

00:05:19.800 our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.

00:05:24.020 It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.

00:05:27.120 Any nation can create a republic,

00:05:29.340 but to keep it requires a dedication not just to self-governance,

00:05:33.080 but the governance of self.

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00:06:55.840 Ordered liberty is not the freedom to pursue every base desire,

00:07:01.000 but the ability to pursue virtue

00:07:02.760 inside a shared understanding of the good.

00:07:06.380 That's why Machiavelli agreed with Aristotle

00:07:09.100 that virtue requires community.

00:07:11.540 The individual is not virtuous in isolation,

00:07:14.600 but must exercise that virtue by pursuing the good

00:07:17.940 in relation to friends, family, religion, and business.

00:07:22.300 Without order, we can't have community

00:07:25.240 or understand our role inside of it.

00:07:28.460 Order is a precondition for community.

00:07:31.500 Community is a precondition for virtue.

00:07:34.340 Liberty is the rare and delicate fruit

00:07:36.820 of a society which is virtuous.

00:07:40.600 Machiavelli may have recognized the necessity

00:07:42.880 for virtue in a republic,

00:07:44.940 but his reputation as a ruthless political realist

00:07:47.860 is well-earned.

00:07:48.800 The philosopher understood that the establishment of order

00:07:52.580 was a messy business,

00:07:54.120 which often required a leader

00:07:55.620 to commit morally questionable acts.

00:07:58.600 This is why republics,

00:08:00.160 such as that of ancient Rome,

00:08:01.560 are often born out of monarchies

00:08:03.460 where order has been well-established

00:08:05.280 and community had allowed virtue to flourish.

00:08:07.880 The United States itself was born out of a monarchy

00:08:11.120 which had established order in a new land,

00:08:13.980 but those people had obtained a level of virtue

00:08:16.280 that enabled liberty through self-governance.

00:08:19.480 While the American people still retain 0.99

00:08:21.960 an undeniable capacity for greatness,

00:08:24.600 it would be difficult to argue

00:08:25.880 that the current state of the nation

00:08:27.860 would be best described as virtuous.

00:08:31.120 Progressive activists have successfully driven

00:08:33.760 Christianity from the public square 0.98

00:08:35.580 and replaced it with their own hedonistic

00:08:37.780 and secular faith.

00:08:39.840 The resulting collapse of public and private morality

00:08:42.500 makes restoration difficult

00:08:44.100 for a people who founded their shared identity

00:08:46.660 in a liberty which they no longer

00:08:48.680 are capable of maintaining.

00:08:51.420 Decadent societies often find themselves

00:08:53.900 subject to Caesarism

00:08:55.600 because they've lost the capacity to keep order,

00:08:58.920 a reversion to the status of children

00:09:00.960 who must once again be governed by a father.

00:09:05.580 To go ahead and place all of my cards

00:09:07.900 on the table,

00:09:09.060 I find it very unlikely

00:09:10.640 that the United States

00:09:11.780 will collectively find its way back

00:09:13.720 to Republican self-governance.

00:09:16.060 Many Americans have abandoned

00:09:17.500 the values and shared identity

00:09:19.280 that wants to find the country,

00:09:21.540 and our ruling elites have gone out of their way

00:09:23.720 to import populations

00:09:25.080 who are entirely alien to that tradition.

00:09:28.320 But if we are to find our way forward,

00:09:31.000 it will start with organic communities

00:09:33.200 of faithful and hard-working Americans

00:09:35.520 who are still cultivating virtue.

00:09:38.360 Small government,

00:09:39.500 limited by a constitution,

00:09:41.680 is not the means to liberty,

00:09:43.900 but the hard-won prize

00:09:45.480 of a community

00:09:46.400 which has already learned

00:09:48.100 to rule itself

00:09:49.100 through virtue.

00:09:54.580 Thanks for watching, guys.

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00:10:40.940 Thanks for watching, guys.

00:10:42.000 And as always,

00:10:43.180 I'll talk to you next time.

00:10:47.720 I'll talk to you next time.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - August 08, 2024

Liberty Without Virtue Leads to Ruin ｜ 8⧸8⧸24

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