Sunday, July 24, 2016

'Put Not Your Faith in Princes....': (Nor Demagogues)

Nice catch at PowerLine!  A UMissouri prof discusses C.S.Lewis' observations on the polis.

Just one (there are six more at the link):

1. Our political institutions are vulnerable to tyranny partly because we no longer believe in a natural moral law. The “juristic key-conceptions” at the foundation of the Western tradition, Lewis noted, are “natural law, the value of the individual, [and] the rights of man.” But these ideas depend on belief in the reality of a universal moral law. “The very idea of freedom,” he reminded us, “presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike. Subjectivism about values is eternally incompatible with democracy.”...

We know that, of course.  But few of us want to recognize the natural consequence of ignoring objective moral law:  tyranny.

On the other hand, this year we are faced with two demagogues, neither of which gives evidence of believing in universal objective moral law.

This is a massive pile of Not Good.

And--by the way--it casts a very dark shadow on the Party Men like Walker (see below post.)


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