{"id":2016,"date":"2026-06-27T08:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2026-06-27T08:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T08:36:55","slug":"bring-virtue-back-for-the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=2016","title":{"rendered":"Bring Virtue Back for the Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”<\/em><\/p>

Read more Who knew Jeffrey Epstein was such a proponent of \u2018trans\u2019 surgeries?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014John Adams’s letter to the Massachusetts Militia, 1798<\/em><\/p>\n

As we approach our country\u2019s 250th\u00a0anniversary, the Adams quote above remains an enduring summary of what the Founders envisioned for We the People.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the long march through our institutions has sought to produce a different kind of people, characterized by President Obama\u2019s pledge to \u201cfundamentally transform the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a professor at a small American college, I can attest to the fruits of this effort.\u00a0\u00a0In my less optimistic moments, I observe my students doom-scrolling before class and struggling to read (or pronounce) Plato and Descartes in class.\u00a0\u00a0When they do engage, it is to correct Aquinas or Mill with what they have been told that Marx and Nietzsche said (as opposed to what they actually said).\u00a0\u00a0The bottom line of our Social Contract \u2014 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness \u2014 is pop-cultured into \u201cI\u2019m right, I get liberty, and you do, too, if you agree with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, that\u2019s a bit of a hasty generalization.\u00a0\u00a0In some cases, students submit truly engaging, non-A.I. essays in which they express a genuine desire to do better but struggle to do so.\u00a0\u00a0In a word, they want virtue but aren\u2019t even sure what this means.\u00a0\u00a0For these students, I provide the following comments, which apply to my students\u2019 youthfulness and, I believe, to the youthful age of our nation as well.<\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson\u2019s \u201clife, liberty, and pursuit of happiness,\u201d an emendation of John Locke\u2019s \u201clife, liberty, and property,\u201d was a first step toward addressing the immorality of owning humans as property.\u00a0\u00a0As such, the Declaration foreshadows the Constitution\u2019s larger mission of forming \u201ca more perfect union.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The rights and structure contained in these foundational documents portend a future society in which the right to pursue happiness belongs to all citizens.<\/p>\n

I find that most students resonate with this historical correction to the critical theory fire hose from which they are made to imbibe in most other courses.<\/p>\n

Some astutely wonder aloud what we are to make of \u201chappiness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It is an excellent question.\u00a0\u00a0For Aristotle, happiness is an \u201cactivity of the soul in conformity with virtue\u201d (Nicomachean Ethics<\/em>, trans. M. Oswald).\u00a0\u00a0Individually, it is a life that actively utilizes time well for the purpose of reinforcing habitual wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0Societally, it is a collection of virtuous adults who intentionally train the next generations in the habits necessary for wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0Taken as a whole, we can appreciate the Founders\u2019 vision: As time and the country go on, noble generations will craft American society into that which reflects the virtues of valuing life, cultivating liberty, and pursuing happiness.<\/p>\n

Regarding politics, Aristotle states that the \u201cmain concern … is to is to engender a certain character in the citizens and to make them good and disposed to perform noble actions.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Frightened Dems realize the DSA they birthed is coming for them<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem is our current definitions of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cnoble\u201d; increasingly, our society is lining up on two very different sides of this debate.\u00a0\u00a0Some see the American system as the best means of promoting individual \u201cgood\u201d in terms of character development and individual freedom.\u00a0\u00a0Others insist that it is a quagmire of oppressive systems inseparable from our laws and customs.\u00a0\u00a0The anti-oppression voices in my classroom typically demonstrate little restraint when it comes to loudly proclaiming their view (the correct view, of course).\u00a0\u00a0Their pierced nostrils flare if any other perspective gets equal time.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, my young students have lost (or have yet to gain) sight of one crucial point: They are young.\u00a0\u00a0According to Aristotle, \u201cA young man … is not versed in the practical business of life from which politics draws its premises and subject matter,\u201d an underdevelopment due \u201cnot to lack of years but to living … under the sway of feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being young is not a moral transgression; it is a simple reality.\u00a0\u00a0And if I am tempted to fault my pink-haired students for their oppression obsession, I am (hopefully) quick to remind myself that I too was once like them \u2014 swayed by feelings over reason.\u00a0\u00a0After all, when I was their age, I pulled the lever for Dukakis, and he wasn\u2019t nearly as eloquent (or double-tongued) as Obama.\u00a0\u00a0(How they justified their Biden ballot is another matter entirely.)<\/p>\n

But again, I see hope, primarily because of Aristotle\u2019s qualifier of virtue pursued over the big-picture course of \u201ca complete life … characterized by rational action.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0At age 61, I am in the fourth quarter of my life, and if I lack virtue, that fault rests squarely on me.\u00a0\u00a0My students, though, are just starting out, and the opportunity to learn virtue is always before them.\u00a0\u00a0As their lives go on and their tax bills increase, they will have the same opportunity we elders have had: to reject childish feel-goodism and pursue hard won but heart-satisfying virtue.<\/p>\n

The same applies to our country.\u00a0\u00a0This 250th\u00a0Fourth of July, will our federal, state, and local governments seek to \u201cengender a certain character in the citizens and to make them good and disposed to perform noble actions\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Will our young people learn to move beyond emotion to reason and virtue?\u00a0\u00a0Will we together play our part in the ongoing \u201ccomplete life\u201d of our \u201cmore perfect union\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Much of that depends on the habitual choices that We the People \u2014 or more specifically, Each of Us the Individuals \u2014 make every day.<\/p>\n

A notable time marker for our nation is upon us.\u00a0\u00a0May it be a reminder, individually and collectively, that age is no guarantee of wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0May the allure of maturity, rooted in liberty and the pursuit of happiness, be our focus in our coming week and remaining years.\u00a0\u00a0And along the way, may our young people catch this same timeless vision of virtue.<\/p>

Read more Elon Musk and the call of chivalry<\/a><\/p>\n

<p text-align:=”” center;”=”” style=”text-align: center;”>\n

\"<p><em>Image:Pixabay, Pixabay License<\/a>.” class=”wp-image-2015″ width=”640″ height=”430″ \/><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Image: JSMed via Pixabay, Pixabay License.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. 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