article on 'FREEDOM IS A DESIRED VIRTUE ...'
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Both freedom and virtue are under assault today. The attack on economic and political freedom is obvious enough. Government takes and spends roughly half of the nation’s income. Regulation further extends the power of the state in virtually every area—how one can use one’s property, what occupation one can enter, who one can hire, what terms one can offer to prospective employees, with which countries one can trade. Increasing numbers of important, persona decisions are ultimately up to some functionary somewhere, rather than the average citizen.
The problem only got worse during the 1980s despite the election of avowedly conservative presidents. Spending and regulation rose particularly dramatically during the Bush administration. Alas, government is likely to expand even more quickly over the next several years.
Virtue, too, seems to be losing ground daily. Promiscuity is not just a twentysomething phenomenon; even many preteens are sexually active. Illegitimacy rates continue to rise not only in the inner city but also in middle class America. Dishonesty and theft are the rage: the entire political system is geared to facilitate special interest looting of the taxpayers. Employees as well as customers shoplift—everywhere. Some years ago a university band distinguished itself by stealing more than $30,000 worth of merchandise while visiting Japan. Business, too, suffers from a corrupt core.
Some elements of our society have attacked both freedom and virtue. Much of the left, for instance, believes in “choice” if it means moral relativism and escape from responsibility, but abhors “choice” if it means private individuals making informed decisions about their children, kids’ educations, jobs, and other aspects of their lives.
Alas, some advocates of liberty and virtue have compounded the problem by unnecessarily setting the two against each other. A number of members of the more “libertarian” right dismiss virtue as a matter of concern, while some more traditional conservatives want the state to circumscribe individual freedom to promote “morality.” Both of these groups see freedom and virtue as frequent antagonists, if not permanent opponents. At the very least, they suggest, you cannot maximize both of them, but, instead, have to choose which to promote and which to restrict.
Those of us who believe in both a free and virtuous society face serious challenges in the coming years. We need to respond by finding ways to strengthen both, not play them off each other. In the end, neither is likely to survive without the other.
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