Virtue vs

by Jon Sullivan - 2025-01-21 - Jonism

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A good test of your faith is to see how it holds up to a world filled with suffering and evil and injustice.

My faith, these days at least, is that the only way to live my best life is to be an actively virtuous person (with my understanding of virtue presented in detail here). And that as humans our only inherent purpose is to live our best life. But in 2025 I see the level of evil in my country rising to a tipping point that can easily lead to it's destruction. How will my carefully crafted system of virtue stand up to this century's version of Hitler? What does "best life" even mean as I see the problem of people dying in the streets becoming the status quo? And we live in a post-truth world now. Since my philosophy of virtue starts with reason and logic, is it even valid in a 1984-ish 2025?

I just worked out my new philosophical focus a couple years ago. Do I need to throw it out already and start over, reworking it for an evil world? I am a hippie. I want to live in a world of peace, light, love, joy. As do the folks I hang out with. But as I see friends and family dying or being bankrupted from lack of health care they can't afford, as I see them demonized and murdered for the color of their skin or their sexuality, as I see people who have fallen through the cracks shit on by those with enough money and power to just fix it all...... how does my virtue deal with that? And if it can't, if virtue now means I need to take action beyond kindness and gratitude, how far does that have to go? Do I need to take up arms and overthrow the oligarchy? Do I need to give all I have to help those with less? Do I need to march in the street and be tear gassed for the rest of my life?

The bad man is not going to stop. We may be looking at Putin style "democracy" here. Let's not forget that Hitler and Putin and Trump were all elected. This may be our future for as long as we live. But I don't think I physically have it in me to be a fight in the streets activist for the rest of my life. Does being virtuous mean that going forward I need to be in good enough shape to literally fight? Or, as I am old and fat, would it be enough to just keep trying to fill the world with kindness? I feel the answer is no. Virtue is based on actions, not intent. And the "hearts and prayers" mantra of the MAGA faithful makes me want to throw up. So.... no.... virtuous intent is not enough. I can't just be especially kind to store clerks as democracy crumbles, people starve and rot, women are taught they only have value if they are married and pumping out children, and people's genders are made illegal.

I am not a hero. I'm a nerd who likes video games more than dessert. I'm a hippie ill suited to punching it out with Nazis. Yesterday virtue was easy. Today it seems beyond my ability.

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