Virtue as Habit

Aristotle (384-322 BC), in his book Nicomachean Ethics, describes the "Virtue of Character" as:

"Rather, we are by nature able to acquire them, and we are completed through habit" (pg. 18).

"To sum it up in a single account: a state [of character] results from [the repetition of] similar activities. That is why we much perform the right activities" (pg. 19)

James Allen (1864-1912) says in his book, As a Man Thinketh, on page 24:

"Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it. But few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it."

So the question must be asked: What "virtuous character" and "good actions" habits have our nation's leaders acquired? The fruit they have produced, by any stretch of the rational mind, cannot be determined as good. The habits of Washington D.C. politicians are simply not in keeping with the definition of good character - be it of antiquity nor of modern times.

The change must begin with ourselves to change America.

C'ya
Eagle Driver
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