Posted by
Anthony on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:13:51 PM
Someone asked me to do this -- and here is my stab. I offer it knowing full well that there are more articulate people who have thought these through much more than I have. I draw from Chesterton's Everlasting Man and less directly Belloc's Path to Rome for these - so they are not my own. They are what has been handed to me as a Catholic and as a man of Western culture.
1. The value of sacrifice: Until recently western society was god-fearing and honored the noble sacrifices of their citizens, especially those who laid down their lives. From ancient times, this society remembered such men and women as heros, especially when battles were lost and their sacrifices seemed to no avail. It should be a grave concern whenever public officials irresponsibly condemn our own American heros to score their own political points.
2. The value of common sense: ideology and government institutions exist to promote and protect human dignity and freedom. This is because the only worthwhile society is the one in which all its members, including the most vulnerable, can thrive. Whenever an idealogue starts playing around with peoples lives, including the unborn, to construct his Utopia, the inheritors of Western culture have an obligation to say - this just does not make sense. Example: Eugenics defies common sense, and to publically fund organizations like Planned Parenthood who target African American neighborhoods and colleges for their abortion clinics should be of grave concern.
3. The value of familial loyalty: families with a mom and dad are the best place to raise children -- the village may be able to help in this task, but the govenment is not qualified to be mom or dad. Example: Public educational institutions have shown themselves incompetent to raise boys into young men (see research by Leonard Sax at
www.boysadrift.com), and dumping more tax dollars into public schools will not solve this problem.
4. The value of the American entrepeneurial spirit: Americans are very gifted and industrious people, capable of rediscovering the moral compass of their forefathers whose sacrifices bestowed on them a wonderful way of life, and even more capable of pulling themselves out of any economic crisis. The government sets this spirit free every time it makes just laws (laws in accord with common sense) and redresses injustice (anything that goes against common sense), and then gets out of the way.