Virtue as Citizens

Essential to our society in today’s world is the attribute of virtue. Virtue is defined in Preach My Gospel as ‘a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards’. It is the adherence to a code of ethics that puts the welfare of others above our own. Virtue is a necessity in the way a country runs, and can be broken down to an individual level. Each of us needs that attribute to contribute to the overall bettering of our neighborhoods, communities, cities, and ultimately, our nation. Observing a person’s behavior is an indication of how virtuous they are. Citizenship is obviously defined as the inhabitant of a country. Therefore, virtuous citizenry can be defined as the responsibility for each citizen to live after high moral standards resulting in an individual contribution of a stronger nation. Government has played a role in virtuous citizenry, but there remains an undefined line left for interpretation. What role should government play in nurturing that virtuous citizenry? As we look at aspects of virtuous citizenry from the past and present, we see that as we cultivate this virtue in our society, we come to recognize that a good, but limited, government has the responsibility to encourage and enforce virtuous citizenry to ensure a progressing nation in the future.

The entire concept of an American Nation was based on this idea of virtuous citizenry, that people were able, by their own good nature, to establish their own way of living, and by their own popular consent, choose their laws and system of government. The founding fathers recognized this concept as well. They saw ways to bind communities together and increase the virtuous behavior of citizens. For example, they saw religion, education, economy, families, and employment all as opportunities that would bind the community together Thomas Jefferson said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone.” (Hatzenbuehler 124) This shows that although government is necessary to encourage and enforce the concept of virtuous citizenry, the bulk of the responsibility ultimately rests on our shoulders to be virtuous citizens. We see throughout history results from virtuous citizenry, be they bad or good. Take for example, the Nephites of the Book of Mormon. They were infiltrated by a group of robbers, who had their minds set on taking over the king and the land. They were eventually undone by this group and their refusal to lead virtuous lives, and it led to the eventual destruction of their people just hundreds of years later. In Ancient Greece, virtuous citizenry was a favored concept. Through it, they were able to run an extremely functional society, where the people had their own voice in everything that happened. The Founding Fathers hope to encourage and create this civic virtue was realized in many ways. They supported mainly education and agriculture, the thought process being that if one could learn young to work hard and develop key attributes, that virtuous citizenship would eventually sweep the nation. Jefferson praised farmers and agriculturists as ‘God’s chosen people’, because of their natural hard-working mentality which led to this civic virtue. The belief of both Jefferson and Lincoln was that the way to create virtuous citizens was through public support for education, which in turn led to advancements in technology on the farm, producing a means of ‘useful labor’, as Lincoln termed it. Through time we see this was a successful way of encouraging that virtue that they desired for each citizen to have. The society functioned very well and enjoyed prosperity.

Today, our virtuous citizenry can be defined and viewed a little differently. What has changed in our past to encourage unvirtuous morals and behavior? Why isn’t virtue viewed as an essential attribute that each citizen should possess unto the bettering of the nation as a whole? I believe virtue is defined a little differently in the sense that if we looked back to Jefferson and Lincoln’s day, what was viewed as behavioral expectations is now viewed as virtuous behavior. Granted, society has evolved to a whole new level than what it was, but should the expectations in our personal behavior change? For example, if I lived in 1776, cheating, stealing, and lying would be viewed as a crime, just as it is today. But the person who chose not to cheat, steal, or lie, would be viewed today as virtuous, as opposed to a normal, law-abiding citizen in 1776. Our mistakes and misdeeds have become society’s norm, and by making virtuous behavior only not committing crime, we have changed the meaning of the word and desensitized ourselves to view virtue as a liability rather than an asset. We see society’s common belief that the government’s view is too myopic to create a functionable way to encourage and enforce the citizens to lead virtuous lives. I personally view this as an excuse to push the blame onto the government. The government’s job is not to micromanage its’ citizens and make sure they are virtuous. It is however to encourage virtuous behavior that will lead to a better lifestyle in their respective nation. The ideal way to adopt this would be to create a ‘duty of virtue’ type attitude, with the expectation of each citizen to fulfill that duty. But how can we establish that expectation in an already failing society? I believe that if we, as a nation, are able to revert to the Jeffersonian and Lincoln based idea, as previously stated, that the way to create virtuous citizens is to support furthering our education, creating a desire for ‘useful labor’, we would be able to better encourage and enforce civic virtue, in turn leading to a better society to live in and a better general view of Americans throughout the world. Jefferson and Lincoln both saw labor, rather than capital, as the basis of wealth (Hatzenbuehler 123). I believe that President Trump has started this process wisely, whether he has intended to or not. By creating menial jobs in our country and lowering the unemployment rate, while keeping those jobs to Americans, the government fulfills its’ responsibility of encouraging and enforcing virtuous citizenry. Our job then, as Americans, is to follow the encouragement of the government that we establish, and take those first few steps down the road to increasing civic virtue in our country.