Reading this article made me think about something and go dig it out of my files.
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Let’s get back to that old idea of an aristocracy of merit
By Charley Reese - Published in the Orlando Sentinel on April 20, 2000
It is time to revive the Jeffersonian idea of an aristocracy of merit before the last vestige of American freedom drowns in the cesspool of egalitarianism. When I was boy, people were not shy about saying of someone who neglected or abused his family that such a person was “sorry and no good.” And they were not shy about saying it to the sorry-and-no-good person’s face. They did not stoop to treat a sorry-and-no-good person the same as they treated a fine-and-good person.
To do this is to betray the fine-and-good person. Our handshake and smile should be reserved for those people whose virtue earns it. If they are offered to people whose behavior is less than virtuous then the handshake and smile are debased and degraded. Of what value is our approval if we grant it freely to every bum, slut, ignoramus, liar, and criminal we meet? We become no better than a courtier who smiles at and flatters everyone in sight. Some people don’t deserve a smile, only a cold and formal address.
It is not true that everyone is as good as anybody else. Some people are definitely superior people, and some people are definitely inferior. Some people are intelligent, and some people are dumb. Some people are industrious, and some people are lazy. Some people are kind, and some people are mean. Some people are considerate, and some people are rude and boorish. It is not enough to acknowledge the virtuous by our approval; we must also acknowledge the bad by our disapproval.
Americans ought to be able to tell the difference between a communist and libertarian, between a dissolute person and a moral person, between a responsible person and an irresponsible person. But to do that, Americans must have standards, and apparently government schools and the news media are working diligently to make sure that Americans don’t develop any standards.
Americans ought to be able to tell the difference between literature and hackwork, between art and trash, between great people and mediocrity. At one time, they could, but of late people seem increasingly unable to form judgments.
They seem to believe that there is only one virtue and that is tolerance. Tolerance, however, is not a virtue. It just means acquiescence, and nobody should tolerate rude behavior, irresponsible behavior, dissolute behavior, criminal behavior and the betrayal of oath and trust that is so common in Washington, D.C. By the same token, discrimination has been made into a “bad word” though, in fact, it simply means the ability to distinguish between good and evil, the worthwhile and the not so worthwhile.
Well, there is no secret about who is pushing the society without standards. It’s all those people who would be in deep trouble if people had standards: talent-less bimbos; goofballs pretending to be artists; dissolute crooks serving in public office; and amoral executives promoting obscenity as entertainment. In short, the incompetent, the amoral, and the immoral.
If you go back to the 1950s, when the decline of America began, you will hear the advocates of the sexual revolution telling you that once Victorian and Puritanistic hang-ups and repression are eliminated, people will be happy, healthy and wise. Well, all the restraints have been removed, but instead of happiness you have an explosion of crime, suicide, broken families, venereal disease, and rampant dishonesty. Wow, what a surprise.
Hedonism is one of the oldest philosophies, and its results have always been the same: the decline, decay, and eventual collapse of civilization. People have forgotten that only moral societies flourish.
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Very good post. So true.
Money quote.
BTTT