John Adams and Virtue: Making America
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the shared goal of every American. We all have a pretty good idea about what life and liberty mean, but what about pursuit of happiness? John Adams, our second president, understood how crucial this concept was to the American idea. Dinesh D’Souza explains.
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Script:
“…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is the shared goal of every American.
The US Constitution was written to make it possible.
We all have a pretty good idea about what life and liberty mean, but what about the last part of the phrase—the pursuit of happiness?
That’s a little harder to pin down.
Let’s give it a try.
The 17th century English philosopher John Locke spoke narrowly of the rights to life, liberty and property. The Declaration of Independence widened the scope to something far grander, the quest for what Aristotle termed the true end of all human endeavor—happiness itself.
We think today of happiness in relativistic terms, something each person pursues in their own way. For example, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Polonius advises Laertes, “To thine own self be true.” In other words, be yourself.
We hear this a lot today.
To John Adams, America’s second president and a seminal figure in the creation of the country, this was bad advice.
For Adams and the Founders generally, happiness was a modus vivendi, a way of living, expressed by how one conducted oneself, especially in public.
Adams understood that people are an imperfect amalgam of the admirable and the abominable; that “being yourself” does not automatically lead to good character. It’s more likely, in fact, to lead to self-absorption. The only way to attain a good character is, like everything else, to work at it.
The best way to do this, Adams contended, was literally to imagine a noble character—here we’re talking about a character like a character in a play—and then strive to become that character.
Walk like that character, think like him, feel like him, act like him. Over time, through the result of continual effort and the slow working of habit, one can become that person. Adams practiced what he preached. In this way, he became a public figure both incorruptible and unfailingly honest. He became the best version of himself.
This takes us back to the Founders’ conception of happiness.
They subscribed to the Aristotelian belief that genuine happiness is achieved when “the activity of the soul” is in perfect harmony “with virtue.” None of the founders reflected on this idea more than John Adams.
Not only did he want his own life to be defined by virtue, he also wanted the infant republic to be built on it. Without virtue, he believed, America could not succeed.
Today the term “virtue” seems anachronistic, a notion from the past. But to Adams, America’s survival as a free country depended on it.
“The preservation of liberty,” he wrote, “depends on the intellectual and moral character of the people. As long as knowledge and virtue are diffused generally among the body of a nation, it is impossible they should be enslaved.”
In a monarchy, Adams noted, the people don’t need virtue. They can be “as vicious and foolish as they please because all political responsibility lies in the hands of the king and his retinue. In a republic, however, the people are the government. So, the virtue of the state is a reflection of the virtue of the people.
Given that human nature is deeply flawed, this created an obvious problem of which Adams was painfully aware.
“I have seen all along my life,” he observed, “such selfishness and littleness… that I sometimes tremble to think that, altho we are engaged in the best cause that ever employed the Human Heart… the Prospect of success is doubtful—not for Want of Power or of Wisdom but of Virtue.”
How could the new nation develop a virtuous citizenry? A devout Christian with enormous respect for the Jews and the Hebrew Bible, Adams certainly saw belief in God and fear of His judgment as indispensable. So was a proper education.
But he did not think these were enough.
A virtuous government would also be necessary. Here’s where a clearly delineated, and easily understood constitution would be essential. And no one worked harder than Adams to create one.
For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/john-adams-and-virtue-making-america
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So good! Thanks for this!
Americans are not virtuous as a people. We were, but that was lost years ago.
Good video
"In a republic the people ARE the government." ???
Huh.
"The individual is the state and the state is the individual." – Mussolini
Here here…well said Denesh!
Making America series has not only helped me to understand America better but to help me be better every day. Thank You PargerU!
Salute from Iran-Norway!
The failures of humanism never surprise me.
…if you quantified the nature of the Mongols and converted it into a system…it would be called Capitalism…Corporate Raiders…
Men who follow God, are men. Men who don't, will never know what a it is to be a Man. When man becomes his own god… you get democrats.
4:22
Yes, the conniving, corrupt, power-lusting politicians like John Adams, who imprisoned anyone who spoke or wrote critically about the government or those who ran it.
4:10
Yeah, an easily understood constitution that he nonetheless chose to completely ignore when he passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, a pair of laws that wiped their asses with the First Amendment.
Adams knew that altruism was not right.
I've always loved this wording… Nothing in it guarantees happiness, as much of the modern left seem to expect, but rather removing barriers of pursuit.
Yoooo
Abby was no slouch either..
Its so disheartening to see what we have enabled the system to become
gud
Not as good as Marcus Smart
I began to explain to my high school government/economics class what was in the latest spending bill passed by Congress. A few seniors began to get angry. "You mean they just decide to spend all this money that doesn't need to be spent?" "That's our money! How dare they use it to pay off their family, friends and donors!" "How is this legal? How are they getting away with this?" My answer? "Because we let them. We need to get these Bozo's out of office before they do any more damage."
Best version of your self
Thanks a lot for sharing the principles which US was built, sorry for this days people who don't have gratitude for the vision of the parents of your country
Well you can’t have taxes with property being an inalienable right
Sorry Hamilton I’m with Jefferson on that one who’s more in line with Locke
I wonder what the good Mr. Adams would say about Donald Trump. Oh. and the Constitution the Founders wrote is a secular document, with very clear separation of church and state. P.S. there is no correlation between virtue and religion.
Prager U videos should be shown in elementary schools.
Clarito clarito me quedo la información 😟.
When election results are falsified by computer software, we the people are no longer in control of our government,
As Jordan Peterson said, there is no societal problem that cannot be solved by individual responsibility.
I don’t know what you used dictionary but in my hand I keep something like this.
Virtue – A general tendency to behave in a manner that is in agreement with the moral code of society. The term con-notes that such behaviour is voluntary; one who is impressed into obeying the code against his or her will is not considered virtuous. Some writers emphasize sex and sexual code but this restriction is not necessary.
I don’t watch it. What is truth?
Can you live with two or three truths?
The truth is one or the truth don’t exist.
Truth is true to defend itself without help, the lie will not be true because it will grow stronger. I understand that, too.
A glorious bastard, like all the founders. Thank You Johhny boy
We have a major problem in that one political party has no virtue. We may already be doomed and not realize it.
"To thine own self be true" does NOT mean be yourself or do your own thing. No one quotes the second half of the sentence. It means be honest with yourself and then "as surely as the moon follows the sun, thou cannot be false (dishonest) with any man.
There can be no virtue until you are first honest with yourself
Hey, remember, there's no honor among thieves.
This is a great mini series. Thanks PragerU and Dinesh D'Souza!
3:30… We have lost this as a Nation… and we are failing miserably.
In GOD We Trust