A word I almost never hear used today is virtue. Well ok, occasionally in a church homily, but to be truthful not very often there either. I am not the only one who has noticed the decline in the use of the word virtue and associated virtue words like kindness, truthfulness, fidelity, patience, honesty, mercy, sincerity and humility. In an August 2012 article by Jen Doll “The Moral Decline in the Words We Use” published in Atlantic magazine, Doll cites a study by Pelin and Selin Kesebir that shows there has been a significant decrease in the use of the word virtue and virtue words in books since the 1980’s.
So what? What’s so important about the word virtue?
As Doll relates in her article, the lack of use of virtue words in our culture “means that the concepts those words stand for are less a part of the individual and societal consciousness.” This leads to moral confusion, moral relativism, and to the absence of a shared moral framework in a society. And that, as America’s Founding Fathers understood, is a disaster for both individual happiness and for the survival of a democracy.
"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea." James Madison
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin
"Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government . . . can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppressive form so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people." George Washington
Moral confusion is particularly a problem for young people today as they are developing into adults. In his article “Students’ Broken Moral Compass,” teacher Paul Barnwell describes how he presented his students with a hypothetical scenario in which a friend of theirs had committed a felony during which other people were seriously hurt. He then asked if students felt they should or shouldn’t turn that friend in to the police. Not one student said s/he would “snitch.” They were unconcerned about those hurt in this scenario. In further discussion with the class, Barnwell discovered that his students had little experience reflecting on their own morality or ethics – and that ethics and character were seldom, if ever, discussed in school.
Writer C.S. Lewis summed up the case for why we as a society must consider the importance of virtue in our personal lives and why teachers must talk more about it in our schools:
“What is the good of drawing up, on paper, rules for social behavior, if we know that, in fact, our greed, cowardice, ill temper and self-conceit are going to prevent us from keeping them? I do not mean for a moment that we ought not to think, and think hard, about improvements in our social and economic system What I do mean is that all that thinking will be mere moonshine unless we realize that nothing but the courage and unselfishness of individuals is ever going to make any system work properly ... You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society. That is why we must go on to think of the second thing: of morality inside the individual.”
Some teachers, like Paul Barnwell, have found ways to incorporate discussing virtue and morality in their lessons. But many more need to heed the call to do that.