Why Virtue Today?
Virtue has a long and varied history as an idea. In this publication, on Medium, we want to talk about what it means to have virtue today. And why we need to get some.
Virtue for us, now, means being decent in our interactions with others. It means demonstrating an awareness of the common good in our pursuit of personal goals, and a willingness to look at the long view and the big picture in our husbandry of shared resources.
It does not mean being a saint. Just a good person. A reasonably-minded citizen. A supportive co-worker, boss or employee.
We ranged over many words and concepts in our discussion of what to call our publication. In the end, we picked virtue because it means behaving in a way that is in keeping with ethical principles. Of course, in the past, being virtuous has meant a different things to different cultures, depending on what those principles were. One of our missions, in this publication, is to look at what it’s meant and how to retool its meaning for the modern world.
Like our behavior, virtue needs a make over.
We’ve been on a world consuming binge. An insatiable hungering for fame, power and wealth. An addictive cycle of buying stuff we throw away to clutter our shrinking world. And it hasn’t even brought us happiness. We need to cultivate, and be proud of, virtues compatible with sustainable practices in domains as different, yet connected, as ecology and self-esteem.
My contributions to Virtue Today will range from quasi-academic articles with a couple of references, to personal perspectives on my own struggle to find virtue and adjust. Some may relate to the story of my life as the creator/author and inhabitant of a fictional universe covered in my publication Reality Skimming. Usually they’ll reflect other aspects of my interests and life.
If you like what we’re doing, here, on Virtue Today, let us know. We’re excited by the interactive aspect of Medium. Let’s talk. And discover, together, how we might define, practice and promote virtue for a better world, today.
