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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31753 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023

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For my good. It's better to be a good person, even at great material costs, than to engage in vice to get ahead.

This is too glib. What is Vice in this context? Is it a vice to commit an evil that you believe is necessary to achieve a just outcome? It wouldn't be a vice to lie to the Nazis about the jews in your attic, right? Is it a vice to maintain a MAD nuclear deterrent? Is it a vice to use the enemy's own tools to defeat them - even if you would abhor them in any other case?

I can see that from a Christian perspective, with a belief in an eternal reward for choosing non-resistant martyrdom against enemies that wish you harm.

But in ancient Roman the virtues included Virtus, Auctoritas, Dignitas... "Gracefully losing" while your community falls apart would be seen as a vice from this perspective.

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