Egypt

Watching events in Egypt I have to say I'm not optimistic.

That strikes me as a horrible thing to say, almost like not getting excited about Christmas spirit or young love or something. And maybe some good will come of this but ...

That said, however, I think we grossly underestimate the amount of public virtue necessary for a democratic, federal republic to work. And it takes all three of those elements. We talk as if  all a country such as Egypt needs is democracy. But with out federal arrangement of provinces or states, any central government will be too invasive. And without a republican form—i.e. not direct democracy but elected representatives who get to direct a  government that is understood to be both sovereign and replaceable—the government will never have the authority it needs to retain the people's respect; the government always has to be bigger than the people who currently control ot.

And there is a fourth thing. That is public virtue.

That's a tricky proposition for non-believers and Catholics because the specific form of public virtue that underlies the nations of the west that have set the standard for peace, order and good government that we hope and wish for when we see these events in Egypt, the Ukraine and elsewhere is protestant. And we don't like to admit to ourselves just how important people like Mattie Ross really were to making our civilization work. To the contrary, we feel very superior to her and sneer at her.

She has faults, of course, but so does everyone. But Mattie and protestantism also have deep virtues and it behooves us to not only figure them out but to acquire them ourselves.