Flipping Virtue on its Head

Montesquieu warned "As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.”

True enough. This take, however puts a spin on it that may be even more true, and perhaps even more dangerous, as in the way C.S. Lewis warned us about tyrants with good intentions:



A tyrant that is not just an individual head or small group is difficult to unseat.
on

4 comments:

  1. Texan9910:11 AM

    And fear is a tyrant that brave men have been trying to unseat for all of human history. It's not a battle we'll ever be able to relinquish.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Texan9911:02 AM

    https://orthosphere.wordpress.com/2021/09/05/the-students-in-this-rare-instance-are-right/#more-27579

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grim10:59 PM

    Virtues tell because they are built into the structure of the world. A man who is courageous, whatever his cause, will succeed more often than one who is timid. This is because he will dare, he will press, and therefore more often he will succeed.

    None of the wicked powers of old survived. China has only not yet fallen. So too our own technocrats, who will not survive just because they are not virtuous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. douglas11:40 PM

    Thank you both for the inspirational words. It's hard to not start to feel beaten down by it all sometimes.

    ReplyDelete