Political Virtue and Honor

These are three words that this day and age seemingly no longer go together among people with political aspirations. However many of the great minds that penned our Constitution believed them to be paramount qualities for elected office. They spoke at great length and tried to safeguard against unscrupulous people entering government service.

They viewed elected office as a high honor, they labored for it to become the most respected position of employment. Yet today politicians of all levels are labeled among the least respected professions in opinion poll after opinion poll. Congressional approval ratings rarely cross 20% and thousands if not millions of Americans distrust our government for one reason or another.

SO what has happened to the vitreous leaders of yesteryear? Washington, Lincoln? I don’t know, could it be the thousands upon thousands of ethics violations? The hundreds of scandals? Nixon? Clinton?… No, this problem wasn’t caused by Nixon or Clinton, those are but symptoms of the disease.

The answer is the loss of morality plaguing this nation. Morality has been replaced by relativism which in itself can not serve as a guide to life. By its very definition it implies every thing is permissible, relative to the circumstances, that there are no absolutes.

Morality, however, defines itself in the context of absolutes, it implies standards to be followed and rules that define good from evil. Relativism has no constructs allowing for absolute right and wrong. It is a sliding scale of morality to be defined by the circumstance. A perfect fit in a society that where personal accountability is growing to be bygone concept. Weak morals equates to little virtue and little honor.

Even mention virtue and honor among many sections of our society and you get a reaction akin to a group of ten year olds when some passes gas. The Comedy Central crowd that imbrue the likes Jon Stewart with respect simply because he is “funny” have hardly a concept of it. And many of the supposed adults of this generation appear to have no interest in it all. Aside from the US Military you will be hard pressed to find a trace of either.

I now see what my parents saw. A downward spiral of social virtue and honor that seems to be gaining speed. Honestly, would you have believed ten years ago that in the future you’d be exposed to TV commercials for erection producing pills?

Its difficult being a student of history not see parallels to great societies of the past and the moral state of contemporary America. Greeks, Romans… do we remember how those stories ended?

Is that our lot, a great nation lost by morality consuming disease? I pray not. I am ever the optimist. I still believe there are vitreous people in this nation, honorable people. I believe they are there, maybe they aren’t fed up enough, or haven’t been listening…. but they are there. My question is where are they?

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