Beginner / childhood
Proficient / adolescent
Perfect / mature adult
We reach the “perfect” or mature stage of virtue when we begin to do whatever we do well, and to do it creatively. (as opposed to doing what we do superficially, or half-heartedly and in a base way, doing what we “feel” like doing rather than doing what we want to do)
The virtuous person has learned how to learn, and has rooted him - or herself in good soil for growth. Virtue has become a stable foundation for the freedom to do what really leads to happiness.
Read more at Faith and Prosperity.
There is no quicker means of raising a skeptical eye among many conservatives and libertarians alike than to endorse both liberty and virtue. Many people who consider freedom the preeminent political objective perceive support for virtue to be an implicit call for restrictive new laws. More than a few advocates of virtue treat a vigorous defense of liberty like the promotion of vice. This mutual hostility is evidenced by the growing strains between many economic libertarians and social conservatives, who once submerged their differences in the pursuit of common goals. Yet neither liberty nor virtue is likely to survive alone.
Both freedom and virtue are under serious assault today. Government takes and spends nearly half of the nation's income. Regulation further extends the power of the state in virtually every area of people's lives.
Increasing numbers of important, personal decisions are ultimately made by some public functionary somewhere. Virtue, too, seems to be losing ground daily. The legal and political systems are increasingly based on theft and irresponsibility. Families and communities increasingly break down, if they form at all. Popular culture celebrates many of humanity's worst attributes.
At this critical time, some supporters of either liberty or virtue are setting one against the other, treating them as frequent antagonists, if not permanent opponents. At the very least, the competing advocates suggest, you cannot maximize both values, but instead have to choose which to expand and which to constrict.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that one must be sacrificed for the other. Rather, freedom and morality are complementary. That is, liberty -- the right to exercise choice, free from coercive state regulation -- is a necessary precondition for virtue. And virtue is ultimately necessary for the survival of liberty. Anyone interested in building a good society should desire to live in a community that cherishes both values. As Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute points out, "Common sense tells any sane person that a society that is both free and virtuous is the place he or she would most want to live."
Our emphasis.
Read the full article here and tell us your thoughts.
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