The Conservative Virtue
- patricklewisbaker
- May 11, 2022
- 1 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
In contemporary America, the most glamorous of the virtues is undoubtedly justice. On battlefields, courage will always shine more brightly, but few have experience of hand-to-hand combat today. Moral courage is in even scarcer supply. In domestic politics, on the other hand, justice still shimmers aloft for impressionable persons seeking a north star for their idealism. The other cardinal virtues, not so much. We have social justice warriors but not prudence warriors or moderation warriors.
Justice in its modern form also has the advantage of making few demands on its acolytes. Back when justice was truly a virtue, being just was a real challenge, as Aristotle and Cicero taught. Rendering to each his due required experienced judgement of men and affairs, a disposition to recognize the fair claims of others, a willingness to accept arbitration, and the habit of refraining from pleonexia, meaning the tendency to grab more for yourself than you deserve. You had to learn how to weigh claims of merit against claims to equality. Those were not easy moral skills to acquire. They required a good upbringing, practice, and careful thought…