Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
Interpretation
The essence of government lies in guiding how individuals live and shaping the character of its citizens.
George Will suggests that the fundamental concern of any government should be the moral and ethical framework within which its citizens operate. Rather than focusing solely on laws or policies, the primary question that should guide governance is centered on the values and qualities that society wishes to nurture in its people. This reflective approach moves beyond mere governance and touches on the deeper philosophical issues of purpose and community.
In practice
This quote can be used in a political debate to emphasize the importance of values in governance.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of america is justice and securing the blessings of liberty.
They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.
Morality, like numinous awe, is a jump; in it, man goes beyond anything that can be 'given' in the facts of experience.
Learn to live without self concern. _x000D_ _x000D_ For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. _x000D_ _x000D_ Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, _x000D_ _x000D_ you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
It was hard to reconcile the drumbeats and lifted voices in the night with my memories of flames and the screams of dying men. How could humanity range so effortlessly from the sublime to the savage and back again?
YouΒ΄re not perceiving what's out there. You're perceiving whatever your brain tells you.
To be true to one's own freedom is, in essence, to honor and respect the freedom of all others.
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