In an increasingly complex world, an ideal leader for the United States would be conversant if not fluent in such subjects as history, finance and the sciences. And today's exigencies call for no less. Instead we get career politicians, eloquent but vapid lawyers with good hair, and others generally unsuited to such a demanding job.
How do we upgrade the caliber of our leaders? I invite all to weigh in, but I would start with this: (1) stricter and much reduced limits on campaign financing, (2) term limits for the House and Senate, (3) maximum transparency for everything related to the operation of our government (absent compelling intelligence requirements for secrecy) and (4) a conflicts of interest firewall between politicians, staff and donors that extends for years and reduces the pay to play conflicts that characterize our very corrupt system today.
I'm afraid it goes without saying that our elected officials will be opposed to all of the above. What does that tell us?
HOW do we bring back bourgeois virtues? (And even better, Christian virtues?)
The answer is simple, but not easy. Virtues are a function of our ends, of our vision of the good life. That's how we define them, practically. They are necessary means to those ends, to that vision.
And so we recover the virtues by making sure that our ends in life are the right ones.
Why are our leaders so poor, so inferior to previous eras?
Because they—and we—love wrongly. It's not that we love completely worthless things. It's that we love lesser things more than we should. We do not love the Highest and Best as highest and best.
Anybody read Bourgeois Virtues by Dierdre McCloskey? She wrote a whole series basically why changing Enlightenment ideas/culture rather than geography, slavery, wage exploration lead to The Great Enrichment. Which in and of itself sort of put the Leftist narrative out of action. If the "wage slaves" were actually fundamentally transformed by 100s of percent wealth, quality of life, age expectancy, it sort of defies the idea that they were a miserable horde beaten by robber barons and company towns.
Something to remember though is that even Roman emperors cried out for virtue without being virtuous. Virtue is learned and it is trained. Who’s going to do that now that we don’t have many good parents? Who believes in virtue anymore? Turns out though that some of us crusty old bastard do. Thanks for your efforts and work. Love following your journey.
Word of advice brother— don't say "mhm" every 2 seconds when your guest is talking. Very annoying and distracting. Either that or turn your mic off when you're not speaking.
In an increasingly complex world, an ideal leader for the United States would be conversant if not fluent in such subjects as history, finance and the sciences. And today's exigencies call for no less. Instead we get career politicians, eloquent but vapid lawyers with good hair, and others generally unsuited to such a demanding job.
How do we upgrade the caliber of our leaders? I invite all to weigh in, but I would start with this: (1) stricter and much reduced limits on campaign financing, (2) term limits for the House and Senate, (3) maximum transparency for everything related to the operation of our government (absent compelling intelligence requirements for secrecy) and (4) a conflicts of interest firewall between politicians, staff and donors that extends for years and reduces the pay to play conflicts that characterize our very corrupt system today.
I'm afraid it goes without saying that our elected officials will be opposed to all of the above. What does that tell us?
HOW do we bring back bourgeois virtues? (And even better, Christian virtues?)
The answer is simple, but not easy. Virtues are a function of our ends, of our vision of the good life. That's how we define them, practically. They are necessary means to those ends, to that vision.
And so we recover the virtues by making sure that our ends in life are the right ones.
Why are our leaders so poor, so inferior to previous eras?
Because they—and we—love wrongly. It's not that we love completely worthless things. It's that we love lesser things more than we should. We do not love the Highest and Best as highest and best.
Anybody read Bourgeois Virtues by Dierdre McCloskey? She wrote a whole series basically why changing Enlightenment ideas/culture rather than geography, slavery, wage exploration lead to The Great Enrichment. Which in and of itself sort of put the Leftist narrative out of action. If the "wage slaves" were actually fundamentally transformed by 100s of percent wealth, quality of life, age expectancy, it sort of defies the idea that they were a miserable horde beaten by robber barons and company towns.
Great recommendation. I look forward to reading it.
Something to remember though is that even Roman emperors cried out for virtue without being virtuous. Virtue is learned and it is trained. Who’s going to do that now that we don’t have many good parents? Who believes in virtue anymore? Turns out though that some of us crusty old bastard do. Thanks for your efforts and work. Love following your journey.
Great interview. I can’t find anything on the talk on K-12 education that Amy Wax was going to give in Poland. Can you post a link?
Word of advice brother— don't say "mhm" every 2 seconds when your guest is talking. Very annoying and distracting. Either that or turn your mic off when you're not speaking.