4 Comments
Jul 21, 2022Liked by The Postliberals

Thank you for another great piece. Your lucid writing is a breath of fresh air. Look forward to Part 2.

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Jul 24, 2022Liked by C.C. Pecknold

"the Democratic Soul can no longer recognize what is truly disturbing the balance of their regime, because they can no longer discern between bad and good desires." Fantastic line. And interestingly, the existence of an absolute truth - a defining one between good and evil - is acknowledged by Aristotle for example in his Politics. This is in part why so many of the ancient Greeks feared a pure democracy. Unbridled liberty results in nihilism.

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If we take democracy to mean rule of the people, for the people, by the people, if follows the quality of democracy could only be as good as the quality of the thoughts and behaviors of the people - no more, no less. Trouble arises when a thought enters the underground stream of a culture that says freedom means the absence of responsibility to self and others. This is the built-in flaw of "pure democracy" - a risk, if left unattended to, too dreadful to contemplate. The flaw could be ameliorated by moral education. I believe moral education is a requisite in the building of a "healthy city". Humans are not "automatically" healthy. Lots of things can, and do, go wrong between cradle and grave. Health is a habit that needs be taught and maintained with vigilance. I am grateful the ideas in PostLibOrder appear to embrace this thought. Some people call this thought "conservative", even "theocratic". I call it a pre-condition for a "healthy city".

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Here's to hoping the end advice won't be, "Well, we just need a good philosopher king in charge!" That's Plato's pitch, and I don't think I believe it.

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