“The Left today has badly misappropriated the word “equity,” using it to mean equality of outcome—something to be achieved through affirmative action and economic redistribution. But real equity, in the old sense, cannot be given. Real equity requires the old fashioned virtues. It is inextricable from full ownership of your own course in life.”
Matt Rosenberg
The idea that virtue is the ground of true liberty and equality has been lost with the classic philosophers. Virtue has no scientific basis, no what’s-in-it-for me motive, no political agenda to defend. In fact, virtue requires no defense for we cannot bestow it, export it, or demand it—we may only live it for ourselves and so, no one may take it from us.
My colleague the Lost Crusader will tell you that prayer changes things and that the thing most changed by prayer is the one praying. What we pray for is a true measure of that we value. Sadly, so few pray. Prayer is too obsolete. It trusts in divine assistance rather than conjuring our own positive vibrations. How we get “positive” anything without God, as a standard to measure against, is beyond reason, but that’s for the Crusader to labor over.
The battleground of equality, equity, and the virtues that spawn them is within us, not in the political or social arena. It is better to live viewing all men are creatures of equal worth than to carry signs demanding it of others.
St. Peter once asked Jesus what another disciple was to do with his life. The Lord’s response was, “What is that to you?” follow Me. Seizing ownership of our own life provides us with the focus we need to change the world.
We are ultimately responsible for our life and the manner in which we live it, not the mandates of government, not the consensus of Facebook likes, and not the demands of talking heads assaulting us from a screen. Tear down all the statues you will, pass the laws and regulations you can imagine, there is nothing in the world that can change the truth that we are responsible for our life. “I was just following orders” is a hollow substitute for living a life of our own.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not the provision of government. They are something we craft within from the demands of virtue. Where virtue is unknown, there is no ground for equality or motivation to pursue it.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
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