The Necessity of Virtue in Society

For the ancient Greeks, happiness was defined as the soul acting in accordance with virtue. This is a concept consistent with the teaching of the Scriptures. Here is St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (ESV).

And St. Peter: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge” (ESV). This is a Christian calling, and it is also a democratic one. As James Madison put it in Federalist Paper No. 55:

As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain position of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.

The need for virtue is greatest in free societies because they depend on self-government, on citizens who govern themselves and their passions and who lead decent, law-abiding lives. And this in turn is one of the reasons that the founders, almost to a person, regarded religion as a foundation stone for democracy.

Family Virtues

The main responsibility for inculcating virtue rests with the family, which esteemed academics James Q. Wilson and the late Richard J. Herrnstein called “the most important social achievement of mankind.”[1] From our faith perspective, it is the God-given task of parents to teach their children about right and wrong, restraint and self-control, diligence and discipline, sympathy and fairness, loyalty and hard work. If they fail in these efforts, the ramifications can be enormous, both for the child and for society more broadly. No federal agency or government program, no matter how good, can replace a mother and father.

This does not require us to idealize parents. As fathers ourselves, we are all too familiar with our shortcomings in this respect. But even flawed parents occupy a unique place in the hearts and lives of their children. That relationship, more than any on earth, is characterized by unconditional love and an unbreakable bond. This means that parents have an unparalleled, if not an unlimited, capacity to nurture children and to shape their character. If they fail, or aren’t around, others can and should step into the breach— but the task of character education will be harder, usually much harder, and in some cases very nearly impossible.

Community Virtues

A second source of character-formation is institutions like schools, church and other houses of worship, neighborhoods, voluntary associations, and community organizations. Important are not the institutions per se but the individuals who comprise them. Teachers, pastors, rabbis, coaches, Scout leaders—all are influential forces in the lives of children.

What every parent wishes is for their children to be surrounded by individuals of good character and high moral purpose. The examples set by athletes and entertainers, by the movies and television shows children watch and by the songs they listen to, influence for good or for ill the efforts by parents and society at large. “What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how,” is the way the nineteenth-century poet William Wordsworth put it. In this case, the “we” includes parents and the community of adults in the lives of children.

Government and Character

The role of government in the formation of human character tends to be indirect and limited, certainly when compared with other governmental initiatives like building roads and enforcing free trade agreements. This is as it should be. There is simply no way that an entity like government—often impersonal, bureaucratic, unfeeling, and unresponsive—can compete with, let alone replace, parents. Devotion and sacrificial love are qualities we associate with mothers and fathers, not with the Department of Motor Vehicles or the FTC.

Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes accord primacy to the state in almost every regard. The American tradition views the role of government as far more circumscribed, designed to create space for civil society to grow and to flourish. But from time to time, statecraft engages in soulcraft as well. Just as attitudes, mores, and manners shape laws, laws shape attitudes, mores, and manners. Beyond that, laws and government policies can affirm, or weaken, character-forming institutions like the family.

[1] James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein, Crime & Human Nature: The Definitive Study of the Causes of Crime (New York: Free Press, 1985), 524.