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Thread: In Praise of Virtue

  1. #1
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    In Praise of Virtue

    Russell Kirk's article "Virtue: Can It Be Taught?" is too long to quote, but is worthy of pondering. There are several sites that have it. Anyway, here is his description of Virtue:

    The concept of virtue, like most other concepts that have endured and remain worthy of praise, has come down to us from the Greeks and the Hebrews. ln its classical signification, “virtue” means the power of anything to accomplish its specific function; a property capable of producing certain effects; strength, force, potency. Thus one refers to the “deadly virtue” of the hemlock. Thus also the word “virtue” implies a mysterious energetic power, as in the Gospel According to Saint Mark: “Jesus, immediately knowing that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?”

    Virtue, then, meant in the beginning some extraordinary power. The word was applied to the sort of person we might now call “the charismatic leader.” By extension, “virtue” came to imply the qualities of full humanity: strength, courage, capacity, worth, manliness, moral excellence. And presently “virtue” came to signify, as well, moral goodness: the practice of moral duties and the conformity of life to the moral law; uprightness; rectitude.

    I did not use the Quote function because I care not for all italic font.
    Last edited by Skull; 07-14-2021 at 11:48 PM.

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    Cool post. My undergrad major was real political theory. A lot of Plato and other old dead Greek (and Roman) dudes).
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    midcan5's Avatar Senior Member
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    What would Kirk think of Trump and the so called conservatives today? CPAC has become a circle jerk of complete nonsense. Screaming idiots applauding the lies of a con-artist. We need a new word for the Trump cult? How can one even grasp the lies and distortions of the modern conservative movement. Check out Kirk's conservative principles and then watch as the republicans attempt the destruction of American democracy.


    'Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.'


    'Ten Conservative Principles' by Russell Kirk

    https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/...ve-principles/


    "My own view is that the American conservative movement's embrace or defense of torture was the moment its intellectual collapse became irrecoverable. When conservatism abandoned core values of American decency in favor of pure force, exemplified by torture techniques designed by Communists and Nazis, then it ceased to be conservative in the sense that Burke or Hayek or Oakeshott or Kirk would begin to understand. And watching the intellectual dishonesty of the right on this issue in the last few years has been a watershed for me. It has been, in my judgment, one long, awful surrender of truth to power. Take a moment with me to review what one leading light of the Republican blogosphere wrote when the Abu Ghraib scandal first hit the news in the spring of 2004." Andrew Sullivan

    http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dis...raib-i/207477/
    Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.

    "I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire

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    Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

    Blaise Pascal (d. 1662)

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    Whene’er a noble deed is wrought
    Whene’er is spoken a noble thought
    Our hearts, in glad surprise,
    To higher levels rise.

    The tidal wave of deeper souls
    Into our inmost being rolls,
    And lifts us unawares
    Out of all meaner cares.

    Honor to those whose words or deeds
    Thus help us in our daily needs,
    And by their overflow
    Raise us from what is low!

    Longfellow


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    Quote Originally Posted by midcan5 View Post
    What would Kirk think of Trump and the so called conservatives today? CPAC has become a circle jerk of complete nonsense. Screaming idiots applauding the lies of a con-artist. We need a new word for the Trump cult? How can one even grasp the lies and distortions of the modern conservative movement. Check out Kirk's conservative principles and then watch as the republicans attempt the destruction of American democracy.


    'Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.'


    'Ten Conservative Principles' by Russell Kirk

    https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/...ve-principles/


    "My own view is that the American conservative movement's embrace or defense of torture was the moment its intellectual collapse became irrecoverable. When conservatism abandoned core values of American decency in favor of pure force, exemplified by torture techniques designed by Communists and Nazis, then it ceased to be conservative in the sense that Burke or Hayek or Oakeshott or Kirk would begin to understand. And watching the intellectual dishonesty of the right on this issue in the last few years has been a watershed for me. It has been, in my judgment, one long, awful surrender of truth to power. Take a moment with me to review what one leading light of the Republican blogosphere wrote when the Abu Ghraib scandal first hit the news in the spring of 2004." Andrew Sullivan

    http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dis...raib-i/207477/
    Well said. We always have to remember though that we are in a far right-wing pool and they will never get it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jet57 View Post
    Well said. We always have to remember though that we are in a far right-wing pool and they will never get it.
    Well said? He is an idiot.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Well said? He is an idiot.
    That was the attraction. Well, that and jet's constant need for validation.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


    ~Alain de Benoist


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    The hilarious thing about that Atlantic piece is that Hayek wasn't even remotely conservative. Hayek and Oakeshott? What? Hayek represented everything European conservatives detested.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


    ~Alain de Benoist


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    The topic & purpose of this thread is virtue, wisdom & other noble character traits, as expressed in pithy quotes - like:

    The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. -- Fyodor Dostoevsky

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