Into the Night (09-27-2021), Matt Dillon (09-27-2021)
Without Virtue There Can Be No Liberty
by Mount Liberty College | Jul 21, 2018 | Constitution
By: J. David Gowdy
Originally published at the Washington Jefferson Madison Institute
To our Founding Fathers, it was obvious, or “self-evident,” that self-government, or a democratic republic, could only be perpetuated by the self-governed. Reflecting these precepts, a contemporary German writer to the Founders, J. W. von Goethe, stated: “What is the best government? — That which teaches us to govern ourselves.”[1] And, a later, prominent 19th Century minister, Henry Ward Beecher, simply said: “There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.”[2] Self-governance consists of self-regulation of our behavior, ambitions and passions. To this end, the Founders fundamentally believed that the ability to govern ourselves rests with our individual and collective virtue (or moral character).
John Adams stated it this way, “Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.”[3] In this regard, the revolutionary war was as much a battle against “the corruption of 18th century British high society,”[4] as it was against financial oppression. While the Founders and American colonists were very concerned with their civil liberty and economic freedom, demanding “no taxation without representation,” they were equally concerned with their religious liberty, particularly in preserving their rights of individual conscience and public morality.[5] With respect to the vital need for virtue in order to establish and maintain a republic, the Founders were in complete harmony:
George Washington said: “Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government,”[6] and “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.”[7]
Benjamin Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” [8]
James Madison stated: “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical [imaginary] idea.”[9]
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and … their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice … These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.”[10]
Samuel Adams said: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue.”[11]
Patrick Henry stated that: “A vitiated [impure] state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.”[12]
John Adams stated: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry 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.”[13]
Virtue ennobles individual character and lifts society as a whole. Virtuous principles eschew prejudice and discrimination, confirming that “all men are created equal.” Virtue encompasses characteristics of goodwill, patience, tolerance, kindness, respect, humility, gratitude, courage, honor, industry, honesty, chastity and fidelity. These precepts serve as the cornerstones for both individual happiness and societal governance.
https://mountlibertycollege.org/with...be-no-liberty/
Into the Night (09-27-2021), Matt Dillon (09-27-2021)
The biden admin personifies corruption and tyranny.
Into the Night (09-27-2021)
So, after all this...
Why do you think the OP hates the constitution so much?
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
- -- The Buddha
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- -- Aristotle
You might be right that "government" is not the most important ingredient of society...but that "morality" is.
I doubt you are...BUT YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT.
Why MIGHT you be right? Because even a blind squirrel with no sense of smell...MIGHT find an acorn once in a while.
ON HIS WORST DAY, JOE BIDEN IS A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN TRUMP WAS ON HIS BEST DAY!
The United States never was a democracy.
It is DEMOCRATS that caused the election to fault through election fraud.
It is DEMOCRATS that fund and support the thugs burning, looting, and pillaging in the cities. It is DEMOCRATS that support both Antifa and BLM.
It is DEMOCRATS that propose fascism such as government control of the energy markets, medical markets, consumer markets, etc.
It is DEMOCRATS that want to censor opinions expressed on various social media sites.
It is DEMOCRATS that want to take your money and wealth by force and distribute it to others that didn't earn it (communism).
It is DEMOCRATS that created the Church of Green, the Church of Global Warming, and the Church of Covid, all fundamentalist style religions, all with the goal of implementing their fascism.
It is DEMOCRATS that want to take away guns.
It is DEMOCRATS behind Cancel Culture.
It is DEMOCRATS that discard the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions of every State.
You don't want a republic. You support The Oligarchy.
"The atmosphere is among the factors that determines the Earth's atmosphere." --ZenMode
"Donald has failed in almost every endeavor he has attempted. " --floridafan
"Abortion is not a moral issue. " --BidenPresident
"Propaganda can also be factual." --Flash
"Even after being vaccinated, you shed virus particles." --Jerome
"no slavery is forcing another into labor" -archives
"Evs are much safer from fires" -- Nordberg
"Abortion has killed no one." -- LurchAddams
"The atmosphere is among the factors that determines the Earth's atmosphere." --ZenMode
"Donald has failed in almost every endeavor he has attempted. " --floridafan
"Abortion is not a moral issue. " --BidenPresident
"Propaganda can also be factual." --Flash
"Even after being vaccinated, you shed virus particles." --Jerome
"no slavery is forcing another into labor" -archives
"Evs are much safer from fires" -- Nordberg
"Abortion has killed no one." -- LurchAddams
Matt Dillon (09-27-2021)
Frank Apisa (09-27-2021), Guno צְבִי (09-27-2021)
Plutocracy is exactly what the Repubs have been trying to build. That is the only explanation for what Mcconnell does. It is also what trump was blundering into. Fascism is how the Trumpys operate. it has no traces in the Dem party. You are wildly misusing contradictory terms again.
Guno צְבִי (09-27-2021)
Into the Night (09-27-2021)
I doubt anyone here hates the Constitution at all...let alone, so much.
The Constitution has served this Republic well for 250 years...and most likely will continue to serve it for many more. It has its faults...but most of the egregious faults simply cannot be remediated in today's political climate. Perhaps some time in the future we will grow up enough to make the much needed reforms.
ON HIS WORST DAY, JOE BIDEN IS A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN TRUMP WAS ON HIS BEST DAY!
ON HIS WORST DAY, JOE BIDEN IS A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN TRUMP WAS ON HIS BEST DAY!
Isaiah 6:5
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
LOL. I like all the serious answers. I thought I was being facetious.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
- -- The Buddha
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- -- Aristotle
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