The dreariness of the family's spiritual landscape passes belief. .....People sup together, play together, travel together, but they do not think together. Hardly any homes have any intellectual life whatsoever, let alone one that informs the vital interests of life. Educational TV marks the high tide for family intellectual life. ...fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise - as priests, prophets, or philosophers are wise. Specialized competence and success are all they can imagine.
I think this is an inevitable consequence of the breaking apart of the family (everyone leaves everyday.) Our real lives are at work and school, not at home. Home is just the hotel and periodically the vacation. Some of what he says is not even true now - families don't sup together and play together on a regular basis.
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In my previous posts I asked questions about the long-term viability of a democratic republic. I am not a monarchist (never thought much about it either way.) Just asking questions.
Charlie makes the comment: The problem we have today is not a problem of government but a problem of morality. There can be no liberty among the immoral.
The founding fathers believed that Constitution would only work for a moral people.
Regarding the best government, a truly moral and benevolent monarch with good judgment, would perhaps be the best form of government, but who is to vouch for his successors? I guess that any government made up of moral people with good judgment would be the "best" government.
Many make the case that since this is unlikely to happen, the democratic republic is the best compromise ....
Oremus pro invicem!
4 comments:
Interesting post Jim. I can't abandon democracy given how much a fan the great Chesterton was, and it is impossible to vouch for a king's successors.
Many Catholic prophecies point to a great monarch rising in France who will help to restore Christendom to glory and lead a Western return to repentance and fidelity to the Holy Father.
http://catholicprophecy.org/
There is no Utopia in this life. Perhaps I believe that a loose confederation of states - weak central government - with much local control would work (What was that about the Articles of Confederation?)
Oh I just don't know.
Some argue that the Constitutional Convention was actually a coup d'etat. These would be the libertarians. They overlook all that ratification business, the addition of the Bill of Rights, etc.
The best argument for the Constitution is to imagine a landlocked state like TN trying to ship up and down the Mississippi River with other states charging tariffs and tolls. Interstate commerce was the overriding concern of the "more perfect Union." How can you be more perfect than perfect?
The strength of interstate commerce is also the weakness as this has been the justification for all subsequent violations of the tenth amendment. OTOH, Switzerland seems to do very well with a highly decentralized government.
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