The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues . . . The vices are indeed let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.That passage is valuable. Another author, reading Chesterton, commented on the idea. "I had never considered virtues as something potentially dangerous, but that is exactly what Chesterton says is happening."
But of course virtues are potentially dangerous, because virtues are strengths. Strength can help you break chains, but strength also helps you forge them. Worse, if not connected to the virtue of practical wisdom, you may not know whether forging or breaking chains is the better course.
4 comments:
I believe a wise man once said, "Every virtue, carried to the extreme, is a vice."
*running away*
Actually, he didn't really say that. I think he said something similar, like virtue is a golden mean between the vices of excess and deficiency. Or to put it another way, 'nothing in excess'.
An interesting thought (nice post, Grim!).
C.S. Lewis made the same argument. Where would great villains be without their courage and determination? To get anything done you need virtue. Even to get anything bad done, you need virtues subverted and out of balance.
It is indeed a very CS Lewis idea, and he acknowledged his debt to Chesterton in the matter. We might repent of a vice. We seldom repent of our virtues. When things go wrong, we double down.
I made the same argument about the diligence and courage of the 9/11 hijackers before.
I did not and do not read CS Lewis or Chesterton, so it wasn't because of them that I started going on that route. THat is because the Negative Left hand path to godhood confers itself the power of 6 chakras upon sentient civilization, merely by skipping the 4th chakra, the Heart. It is still equal in power to the angels and positive polarizing gods.
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