Pages

Search for your Topic

What is the Common Good?

The louder he talked of the common good, the faster we counted our spoons. That’s not the original quote, of course. What Ralph Waldo Emerson actually wrote over a century and a half ago was, “the faster he talked about his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” But the sentiment is the same: that virtuous talk of honor and the common good must always be accompanied by an awareness that something less than virtuous might be afoot—that we might be in danger of being deprived of something precious under cover of sonorous and earnest-sounding declarations of private or public virtue. 

And counting our spoons we should be. For over a year now, America has been subject to a dizzying array of extraordinary economic and public health measures—including proposals for vaccine passports and perhaps even mandatory inoculations—intended to deal with the economic and public health challenges posed by COVID-19. And all these measures have been accompanied by some sort of appeal to the “common good.” 

But can the idea of the “common good” do the work implied by its constant evocation? Can it really provide a basis for all the draconian measures implemented over the past 11 months? Or is it really just a hollow phrase—one that cannot possibly meet the challenge of justifying all the measures that have been taken to date, let alone all those proposed under the banner the “Great Reset.” Or, worse, is all this chatter about the common good really of a piece with Emerson’s houseguest talking faster and faster about his honor?

Praise the Lord

Read the Whole Article at http://feeds.feedburner.com/CrisisMagazine