I'll be Frank

You be Sally
by Pat Darnell

Today we seek virtue from dirt. You think our leaders are dangerous? We sense leaders have inherent strengths in virtues. HA! Their strength derives from unseen virtues... or shall we say invisibility in the name of transparency. If leadership is so disordered, what does it say for the rest of us?

Humans in general are survivors, not planners. Most Americans are raised with virtues similar to those of warriors, who might fight for freedom and democracy. This fight fair upbringing leads maybe to reactions rather than actions. Reactionary politics dominates the US governance. In most cases: "The term virtue is from the word that signifies man; a man's chief quality is fortitude..." (Cicero, "Tuscul." retrieval SOURCE)

Virtue is excellence and perfection, just as vice, its contrary, denotes a defect or absence of perfection. In its strictest meaning, however, as used by moral philosophers and theologians, it signifies a habit super-added to a faculty of the soul, disposing it to elicit with readiness acts conformable to our rational nature.

There: was that frank enough? I think so. Frankness is a virtue; possess it if you can.

It turns out, should you decide to pursue a virtue, you might consider this one inescapable issue -- you can't have a virtue without the opposite un-virtue... eh?

Is that not a stinker? So we start again with demeaning argument, scatological debate, and who knows what else. But I know and you know it ain't over... it truly ain't over; until they find water on Mars.
pd