The Seven Deadly Sins ...
On Vice & Virtue, And Our Worst Independence Day Ever.
Six months have passed, since the fires took my neighborhood down to smoking rubble. I’ve spent a fair bit of time, since then, examining my own relationships to the things and the people and the places in my life. The relative worth of it all. How and why some of us are snatched back from the edge when disaster strikes, while others are allowed to fall endlessly even in good times.
Given the temporary status of my living arrangement, I’m hyper-aware of my standing from day to day. My impact in regard to my needs, my contributions, and my ability to balance these things out. How much of a liability I might be in the eyes of my friends and family. How much of a resource.
And how the generosity and forbearance of my community has had little to do with my own value, and is instead a determination by others to ignore the balance sheet, and help just because they are that kind of people. Being the recipient of so much kindness changes a person if they let it.
All of this self-reflection has been influenced by the moral training of my youth, and also by the examples of people I’ve admired, or been disillusioned by.
When a human is dislodged from his comfortable patterns and sent spinning out into the widening gyre, only to be caught by others … he damn well better mind his manners. And he damn well better know what those manners are all about.
Last weekend, we saw a number of things coincide meaningfully. In the wee hours of Independence Day, as most of us slept secure in our family plans for a celebratory day, the Guadalupe River in Central Texas swelled to a raging torrent, and swept many of our fellow Americans from this world.
Many of them were children. Innocent little girls who’d only known the protective embrace of family and church, woke up under water, tangled in tent-cloth and hurtling end over end. Confused and terrified. Struggling for air and losing that fight. It’s almost impossible to imagine.
As that tragedy played out near the southern center of our nation; and as we all tried to keep our Fourth of July commitments and our patriotic gusto, one very determined man sat down to sign into law, what is certainly one of the most sweeping and most controversial pieces of legislation any of us remembers.
Let’s be honest. This ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is intended to serve only some of us. We won’t debate that here, but it’s as ‘partisan’ a bill as any in memory. And that knowledge alone should give us pause. How is it that any of us feels our government should always preserve our own narrow interests, while depriving those with different concerns, of the government they want?
Government in service to all, is a dead concept at our 249th birthday. Killed by competition and riled-up hatred. Just the day before, in America’s good heartland, the President of us all, let it be known that he sees opposition to the BBB, as a referendum on himself.
They oppose it “… only because they hate Trump. But I hate them too, you know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country.” He then went back to his accustomed scapegoating of the poor immigrants who do our scutwork at bargain rates.
I know that there really is an awful lot of hatred aimed at this guy. But if the U.S. Presidency means anything still, doesn’t it mean at least an attempt to rise above the baser impulses of our species?
It’s been a week now. Stories abound of brave selfless men and women searching through the shattered wreckage in the Texas Hill Country, hoping against hope to find a survivor. The missing are dead, and everybody knows it. But there they are, heedless of the political divisions very real in that part of Texas - so close to liberal Austin - praying that some stranger’s hope might be met by a miracle. Or that, at least, a family might be able to bury their child properly.
Must it always take the worst that our world can hand us, to bring out the best in ourselves?
This seemed a good time to look at what we mean by goodness. So I reached back to what the ancients thought. Those pondering souls who were organizing the philosophical and religious moral tenets, that eventually made self-rule possible.
Let’s take a quick look at the so-called Seven Deadly Sins. I’ll let Google’s AI Overview decide their order. Sorry for the small print.
Pride … Greed … Lust … Envy … Gluttony … Wrath … Sloth.
How many of these am I guilty of? How many are you guilty of?
How many is the big man in the red tie guilty of? Can you recall any speech by Donald J. Trump in which he did not praise himself more than a dozen times? I can’t. Pride is his default setting.
Can you explain why, other than Greed, he’s been accumulating wealth, influence and power for the last fifty years. Dodging debts and taxes, and selling his own name and image willy-nilly all over the planet if the price is right? He surely wasn’t driven by largess.
Is it safe to say that Lust has caused him an awful lot of trouble? And if he’s not wrathful, why are other elected Republicans scared to death of his … well … his Wrath? Why did ABC throw $15 million at him the minute they were threatened?
I’m not sure about ‘Sloth’, but would he be so in love with Tariffs if he’d ever read what actual economists say about them? I’m not convinced that he’s ever read a book cover to cover. Even the one that he hired somebody to write for him and about him. Even one as slender as the United States Constitution. Maybe you’d say that intellectual laziness is not technically ‘sloth’? But you’d be mistaken.
As for Envy and Gluttony, I’m not qualified to judge. I mean, he is overweight, but not morbidly so. He might just have a slow metabolism. Maybe his madcap money-grabs, and hang-outs with the billionaire boy’s club, have no element of envy. Maybe that’s just competitive greed. I don’t want to double-dip here, so I’m willing to give him a pass on envy and gluttony.
Let’s say that the political hero of the American Bible Belt is only deeply associated with five of the seven deadly sins. Fair enough?
I pause here to bid adieu to a few more subscribers.
When we were being warned about the Seven Deadly Sins, back in Catholic school, the nuns were sure to remind us of the Four Cardinal Virtues. These were habits of the mind and heart that could counter our worst human inclinations, and give us better than even odds when Saint Peter looked us up in his ledger-book.
Again, let’s allow Google’s AI to order them for us.
The overview goes on to explain the meaning of each.
Prudence:
This virtue is often called practical wisdom or discretion. It involves making sound judgments and decisions in various situations, guiding our actions towards what is truly good. Prudence helps us understand the right course of action and choose the best means to achieve it.
Justice:
Justice is about fairness and righteousness. It involves giving each person what they deserve and acting in a way that is morally right. Justice is about treating others with respect and dignity, ensuring fairness and equity in our actions and decisions.
Fortitude:
Also known as courage, fortitude is the virtue that helps us face difficulties and challenges with strength and perseverance. Fortitude allows us to overcome fear and maintain our resolve in the face of adversity.
Temperance:
Temperance is the virtue of moderation and self-control. It helps us regulate our desires and impulses, preventing excess and promoting balance in our lives. Temperance is about finding the right measure in all things, avoiding extremes and maintaining harmony.
I’ll leave it to my readers to decide how well Donald Trump is doing with the Four Cardinal Virtues. I’m guessing that most Trump fans I know will assign a Triple-A rating to his Fortitude. Truly his resolve is remarkable in the face of adversity. For better or worse.
I think they’ll score him fairly well on Prudence and Justice. But not without bringing ideological interpretations to the concepts of ‘guiding our actions towards what is truly good’, and ‘giving each person what they deserve’.
As for Temperance? I don’t think even his most loyal adherents would say that Donald Trump exhibits moderation and self-control. That he avoids excess. That he works to find the right balance or maintain harmony.
The ancients who’ve passed down this map of vice and virtue were talking about Character, weren’t they? Strong unflinching character. Internalized ethical guidelines and guardrails that a person can hold to when his own appetites threaten to take him into the dark territory. Wasn’t it that quality that church-going conservatives thought was lacking in Bill Clinton when his indiscretions were revealed?
What’s changed? And how do we change it back? Maybe you’ll tell me in the comments.
Thanks for reading, -Dave
My feelings is that every president we’ve ever elected suffers from all of these mortal sins. Trump isn’t any different, he’s just more obvious. I’m thinking about Hillary‘s husband having sex in the oval office. And I’m thinking about Hillary, letting those people at Benghazi die , rather than ordering a strike. I’m thinking about Jimmy Carter saying that he lusted in his heart. And I’m thinking about Bernie saying that ipen borders is a KOCH brother scheme. Anyone who serves as president will be corrupt in one way or another, this something I’ve learned over the last 70 years. One side does not have a monopoly on truth. That is what I’ve learned having been a member of the communist party, the Socialist party, the Democrat party and the peace and freedom party. Each one of those political parties thought they were right, yet each had blind spots to their own corruption.
Thanks again for your introspective writing Dave. You are a master.