The Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions

by George F. Will

Book Overview

Whether one follows his twice-weekly columns, reads his bi-weekly essays, or enjoys his lively comments as a television panelist, one cannot fail to be impressed with George Will's expressive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671423932
• ISBN13: 9780671423933
• Release Date: March 1982
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Virtue Indispensable to Ordered Liberty

"The Pursuit of Virtue & Other Tory Notions" is George F. Will's second collection of columns, covering the time period from the beginning of 1978 to the first days of the Reagan presidency in 1981. The size and role of government is a perennial topic for debate in our national life, and Will describes his views on this important question. He asserts that capitalism, while certainly a necessary facet of a free society, does tend to undermine traditional social structures and values, and draws a distinction between libertarian conservatism and a conservatism that believes that government should be used as an instrument of conservative values. Will thought that virtue was indispensable to ordered liberty, and urged that liberty should never be allowed to degenerate into license. The Cold War looked bleak for the West in the late Seventies, and Will encouraged America not to be naïve concerning the Soviet threat. In addition to the standoff with the Soviet Union, inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis were troubling the nation in 1980--this led to Ronald Reagan's election, and the author has several columns describing that historic event. Some of the individual figures that Will wrote columns about in this volume are John Wayne, Hubert Humphrey, John Paul II, Alger Hiss, Strom Thurmond, Harold Macmillan, and Ray Kroc. There are a couple of baseball columns and some columns describing Will's family life. Will even takes up the issues of semicolons and the dearth of bells in our lives today. The book is yet another home run by a top-flight political and social commentator.

Triumph of The (Collectivist) Will.

A readable collection from the early career of today's dean of Beltway Republican columnists. George Will is an honest man. He wore the big-government conservative badge without shame even as other Reaganites, arriving fresh to the Imperial City in 1980, still had stars in their eyes about rolling back the welfare state. Will's half-smiling realism is the key to his longevity and success. "The Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions" helpfully corrects misconceptions that equate conservatism with the free market and limited government. Sorry, Rush Limbaugh, they're not the same things. Will's critique of capitalism is on target yet incomplete. The author writes from an altruist/collectivist perspective that causes him to attribute vices to inanimate systems rather than human actors. "Capitalism" and "liberty" may open the door to vice but the responsibility for the existence of vice belongs to its human practitioners. Although ideas do have consequences (as Richard Weaver famously wrote) "socialism" isn't responsible for the mass murders committed in its name; the human agents who carried out the atrocities are. Ditto Christianity. Ditto Islam. Ditto nationalism. Ditto (fill in the blank). In supporting and defending an ethos that "true conservatism demands strong government," Will underestimates the role the growth of government has played in undermining traditional institutions including the family. When parents have to work ridiculous hours to pay ridiculous taxes that support ridiculous government spending -- inevitably leaving less time for child rearing, spiritual pursuits, and general reflection -- then tradition is in trouble. Will's collectivism pops out again and again in that he can't seem to grasp that the pursuit of virtue must be a largely private matter. Thus statements like "...A capitalist society requires an especially elevating political leadership that summons citizens from private pursuits to public spiritedness." Will seems to believe that government can re-moralize society. John O'Sullivan, then-editor of National Review, rounded on this Ivy League-brand "conservatism" when he once told Rush Limbaugh Show listeners that "the government's idea of morality is to prohibit adult smoking yet pass out condoms to pre-teens!" And for those who think the Democrats are solely to blame, we have Rabbi Mayer (Craig) Schiller in 1997: "Republicans and conservatives have won and lost elections over the years but our steady slide into the abyss has never been halted." Without limited government, Will will continue to find widespread pursuit of virtue elusive. Back to Will on capitalism -- he calls it "an inflamer of appetites." Nice try but the yeast in the dough is -- as Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihin documents so well in "Leftism Revisited" -- envy. We must stop coveting our neighbors' goods. And we must learn to say "no," especially to ourselves. Pat Buchanan writes in an upcoming book ("Day of Reckoning") that the essence of conservatism

The themes of "Virtue" resonate today.

Nearly two decades after it was published, Will's second collection of columns bears reading today. The themes Will addresses in the columns -- the role of government, the coarsening of culture, etc. -- continue to resonate. This is an excellent resource for anyone trying to get a feel for American culture from 1977-81. I highly recommend this book.