Social and Political

Intellect is not wisdom.

– Thomas Sowell

Why politics matter

Consider:

  • More than 100 million people were killed in the past hundred years under socialism and communism
  • The abolition of slavery in the United States happened because good people worked hard to affirm moral principles that had already been enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Their presence was not enough ... people had to roll their sleeves up and work to keep the promise made in that document.
  • Bribes blind the eyes of the wise and twist the words of the innocent. Yet bribes abound in politics. Can the outcome of such things ever be justice? If not, politics matter!

moral basis of good politics?

Good and bad beliefs exist in the world. People who work to advance bad beliefs don’t generally do so thinking they are bad, they do so because they mistakenly believe the bad thing to be good. Consider:

  • Does good objectively exist? If so, what is its basis, can we know the good from the bad, and if so, how?
  • If good exists and can be known, then evil also must exist. Should evil be resisted? How does your answer fit in with relativism?
  • If you were supporting and advancing evil because you mistakenly thought it was good, how might you hope others who recognized this fact would treat you or deal with you?

(Top of page: LA Governor and then-presidential candidate Bobby Jindal speaking to reporters, Washington, DC, 2015. Brubaker photo.)

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