Our Failure of Virtue
In 2018, when the USS Fitzgerald killed seven sailors in a 1:30am collision with a Philippine container ship southwest of Tokyo, Commander Bryce Benson was charged with negligent homicide. Although the crew made serious mistakes while Commander Benson was asleep in his quarters, the Navy pinned the blame squarely on Benson, reasoning that “the command leadership did not foster a culture of critical self-assessment.” Because every sailor on board the Fitzgerald was under Benson’s command, their failures were his fault.
American citizens authorize political representatives with the legal sovereignty articulated in our Constitution, and the same American citizens authorize cultural and economic institutions with our money and attention. Like Benson on the USS Fitzgerald, We the People are in command of the United States, and despite the incompetence and willful misconduct of domestic and foreign agents, We the People are responsible for our country’s failures.
Ultimately, the success of any form of government depends on the virtue of its ruler, and democracy is no exception. Washington knew this, warning in his farewell address that “morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” Lincoln knew as well, which is why he declared that “if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” A virtuous people is the safeguard of democracy.
What metastasizing disease, then, is causing our society’s increasing multitude of bizarre symptoms? We suffer from a dislocation from the truth caused by the failure of our own virtue. Most of our symptoms could be categorized as the mirror vices of spineless moral relativism (false tolerance) and ruthless ideological possession (false righteousness), both of which result from our rejection of truth. We reject the truth because we lack faith in the goodness of the truth, or we lack the courage to face the truth, or we lack the humility necessary to receive correction and admit fault, or because of some other moral deficit. Perhaps if we could regain our virtue, we could re-align ourselves with the truth, and perhaps if we could re-align ourselves with the truth, our disease would be cured.
As a free nation, we live and die by the sovereign moral decisions of each individual. In the words of Lincoln, the choice is ours whether to “live through all time, or die by suicide.”