Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

The Virtue of Gratitude

Ivan the K explains with eloquence why Thanksgiving is one way we have to keep Locke in his Locke box.

Discussions - 8 Comments

I'm grateful for Ivan's article.

Nicely done. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks guys, and a Happy Thanksgiving to the whole NLT crew.

And a Texan size Happy Thanksgiving to one and all, {even Ren, who does try one's patience...}.

I've read similar pieces, believe I wrote one myself. But what's the point? Did Locke really invent this or is he describing what we are? Can we really save ourselves by embracing nature vs fighting it? Obviously we lose but do we get no points for trying? I love everything that this author holds in high esteem but let's be real please, this battle against nature is not a philosophic mind trick -- we fight constantly and family and god cannot console us when we lose. We are as pascal claims stuck is this infinite battle that we never win, yet we keep fighting. It's not because of the virtues so eloquently endorsed in this article but because it is only thing that's real. And nietzsche is right it makes me sick.

It's quite simple: Nature finally produced a creature too brainy for its own good. We know we need to be more than we (apparently) are, but we don't have the tools/methods/wisdom to change ourselves into something higher and better. Hence all the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, invisible powers, and cosmic game of bargaining. I don't anyone "up there" is listening, so we'll just have to muddle through as best we can...and hope we don't exterminate ourselves (or our planet) in the meantime.

Modern thanksgiving is about planning and apparently getting ready to survive your 3am treck to walmart. Football games all day long. There is something about seeing and visiting with family, but the type of stuff he is talking about is not going on. People hunt, eat turkey, watch football, fall asleep. Poll 100 people aobut thanksgiving and ask what comes to mind when they hear the word and i doubt many say sacrifice or gratuity. I would imagine that more would say turduckin. I don't disagree on princible about what he says, but its a strawman because so few housesholds are doing anything but paying lip service to the idea of the holiday. If they were, I doubt they would be trampling people to death a few hours later.

and the “self-interest rightly understood” is Tocqueville, but is it not getting a little to close to The Virtue of Selfishness for this crowd?

Leave a Comment

* denotes a required field
 

No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: https://nlt.ashbrook.org/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/13313


Warning: include(/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2008/11/the-virtue-of-gratitude.php on line 595

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/sp/php7.2/lib/php') in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2008/11/the-virtue-of-gratitude.php on line 595