Character

From Bastion of Liberty, comes this masterwork on the virtue that must underly every thing we do or say, the strength (or weakness) of character.

A nugget:

Character is a word susceptible to several interpretations. All but one are perversions: deliberate attempts to divert us from the proper understanding of our duties to ourselves and our places among our peers. A word can have only one exact meaning, and here is the one that pertains to any discussion of character in a sociopolitical context:

What you will permit yourself
when you cannot be restrained or punished for it
is the measure of your character.

H. L. Mencken brushed against this truth in a jocular way when he defined conscience as "the still small voice that warns us that someone might be watching."

Any exploration of character must start from a base of moral and ethical premises. One reaches that base by asking and answering fundamental questions about the nature of Man:

• What are our obligations to ourselves?
• What are our obligations to others?
• Once we have arranged to respect those, are we free to do as we please?

• If we are free politically, might we still be constrained by other considerations?

Read it and then think of the meaning of the term, and it's importance in our social and political life and health.

Hat tip to Bayou Renaissance Man for this and the following article.