“‘Man is a political animal,’ says Aristotle. He thrives in a community of families and clans who govern themselves freely and well, providing for more than basic subsistence. What they mainly provide is freedom: free time, leisure for conversation, an arena for debate, for struggles that have consequences, for reading and arguing, for sport, for contemplation, for honing all practical and intellectual virtues. True civility has more to do with a well-ordered fight than with the bonds of niceness.”
Anthony Esolen
Politically Incorrect Guide To Western Civilization — pg. 36
This gives us instruction about the kind of Government men should build in order to pursue the end of true civility. If Government is centralized it is to intrusive for the end of true civility. If Government is anarchistic lawlessness gets in the way of true civility. In our time we have allowed the government to create a soft tyranny that squeezes out civility. The Government has done this by its reduction of the citizenry through its “educational” arm, to a point where the citizenry is incapable of the intellectual virtues required to engage in a well ordered fight — the key sign that true civility exists.
