To address our civic disintegration, we must reprioritize a civics of reflective patriotism: grateful for America, while perpetually questioning and arguing.
The “man of system” is a famous figure in the work of Adam Smith, and not in a good way. And yet we all think in systems. They can be both beautiful and helpful. What gives?
Roman moralists mistrusted ambition, which they connected to bribery and flattery. The powerful men around President Donald Trump show the dangers of ambition in its classical sense.
