A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion; to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind—if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else—then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease. —”Membership”
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Amen, though only in a modern context. Politics was once about the soul; liberalism of necessity precludes this possibility.
I am interested in hearing your explanation of how liberalism prcludes thoughts about the soul. Thank you for your courtesy in responding to my request.
Did you interpret “liberalism” properly? I mean by it universal suffrage, constitutional government, and a general recognition in society of the rights and dignities of all men (both parties champion these things, even if they differ in the substance in some respects). It precludes a politics of the soul because rights render the soul an illegitimate object of legislation; you can’t directly build character in the citizenry if there is freedom of religion, speech, association, etc.
If one is properly concerned with improving ones own soul, there is no time left to worry about liberalism or any other ideology. Jesus said, “Remove the plank from your own eye first…” This acknowledges that others indeed have motes in their eyes; but also that one cannot respond effectively to those motes while morally blind oneself.