Government can’t make individuals virtuous, but it can stop undermining the institutions, like the family and churches, that once inculcated virtue in the next generation.
Afarmer can’t make his plants grow, but he can create the conditions that lead to their flourishing. A society can’t make its citizens virtuous, but it can nurture the institutions that lead to virtuous citizens.
Great thinkers in Western civilization have long noted the importance of virtue. In Politics, Aristotle declared, “The best life, both for individuals and states, is the life of virtue, wh…
