The 4 Cardinal Virtues

 

I saw this over Here.  This is a site for what I call guys with a traditional value system.  No metro-sexual girlie men you will find there.  I really liked what the site said,  I used their words, but I used my own pictures rather than what they had.  I figured my circle of bloggers will enjoy it since in my mind we also have the same kind of virtues.  I was going to post it tomorrow...but I hit "publish" rather than "schedule"...Oh well....it will help make up for my lack of postings earlier this week.
 

Traditional Christian theology names faith, hope, and charity as the theological virtues. They are directly imparted to the believing Christian by the grace of God and are not attainable through the natural order. They are called theological because they have God for their immediate and proper object; because they are divinely infused; and because they are only known through divine revelation.
Grace perfects nature and the three theological virtues are the flowers of the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. The word cardinal comes the Latin cardo, translated as “hinge.” Whether you’re a lifelong Christian or a Godless heathen, the cardinal virtues are part of the natural moral order and can be cultivated through self-discipline and hard work. We must cultivate them if we expect to live a happy life in this world.

It’s difficult to overstate how much Greek philosophy has influenced Christian theology. Plato identified the four cardinal virtues with a corresponding class of citizen in The Republic.
Temperance applied especially to farmers and craftsmen, i.e. those who provided for our bodily appetites. Fortitude was the necessary virtue of the soldier and corresponded to our spirit. Prudence was the virtue of the ruling class. Justice stood outside the system and governed the relationship between the other three classes and the virtues.
The Roman statesman Cicero also emphasized the four:

Virtue may be defined as a habit of mind (animi) in harmony with reason and the order of nature. It has four parts: wisdom (prudentiam), justice, courage, temperance.

And the deuterocanonical Book of Wisdom 8:7 in the Bible:

And if a man love justice: her labours have great virtues; for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.

 The first recorded instance of the word “cardinal” to describe these virtues occurs in St. Ambrose of Milan’s commentaries on the Gospel of Luke. Later on it appears in the writings of St. Augustine and St. Jerome. St. Thomas Aquinas gave it the most in-depth and systematic treatment of any other theologian in Western Christianity.

Prudence

Thomas teaches that prudence is the virtue that corresponds to the intellect. It enables us to discern our true good in any given situation and the proper means of achieving it. Because it is rooted in the intellect, prudence does not mean directly willing the good it sees, but rather sets the measure for the exercise of the other virtues.
Most importantly, it identifies the golden mean where natural virtue lies. If we lack prudence, courage becomes suicidal recklessness. Mercy becomes weakness. Justice becomes tyranny.

We must not confuse prudence with cowardice or dissimulation. It is the charioteer of the other virtues and guides the judgment of our conscience. The shortest and most effective definition of prudence is “right reason applied to action.” You wouldn’t start your own business without a plan of some sort, no matter how vague.

Justice

Prudence governs our actions. Fortitude and temperance concern taming our irascibility and our appetites. Justice deals with our rights and obligations toward other people.
Obviously the words “justice and “right” have been much abused over the last few decades, but abuse does not preclude legitimate use. If Jones borrows money from Smith, then Smith, in justice, has a right to get his money back if Jones refuses to pay up. The supernatural virtue of charity means going above and beyond the demands of justice; Smith may forgive Jones of his debt and make the money a gift. Justice is blind because she does not respect our position in society.

Justice means respecting others and fulfilling our obligations to them, whether it’s their right to life and limb or simply adhering to contracts. It means expressing gratitude toward those who have done us a kindness. It definitely does not mean a vague and undefined resentment of cishet white male shitlords to last in perpetuity upon pain of losing your livelihood.

Temperance

Temperance is geared toward governing our appetites for sensible pleasure, whether it’s food, alcohol, or sex. If man is the rational animal, as Aristotle put it, then temperance is necessary for governing our animal natures. It ensures our will’s mastery over our base instincts

If we can’t moderate our own desires, then we cannot act rightly, render other men what is their due, or overcome adversity. In the New Testament, this virtue is often called “sobriety” and “moderation.” The results of intemperance should be obvious: grotesque obesity, raging alcoholism, or swimming in STDs. We admire people who dramatically change their physiques through diet and exercise because they are living examples of the virtue of temperance.

Fortitude

Fortitude is often used interchangeably with courage. Remember prudence though: it is a reasoned courage. It’s not foolhardiness or rashness. It’s the virtue that allows us to overcome our fears and remain steadfast in the pursuit of our goals.
Prudence and justice tell us what we must do, and fortitude gives us the strength to see it through. Christian martyrs, for example, do not actively seek martyrdom, unlike Islamic suicide bombers. But whether it’s the Religion of Peace, or the Soviet Union, or the Roman Empire, Christian history is rife with martyrs who peacefully went to their deaths rather than renounce their faith.
In the context of the United States, if you even mildly agree with anything written on Return of Kings or the manosphere, or the orthosphere where my fellow Traditionalists hang out, eventually the SJWs are going to come for you.

Don’t actively seek out to die on that hill, particularly if you have young children to feed. But if you’re ever in their crosshairs, never, ever back down under any circumstances. If you apologize, you’re going to lose your job anyway, only now you’ve lost your dignity besides

A Virtuous Man

The four cardinal virtues all work in tandem. Prudence identifies what is good, how to do what is good, and how to avoid evil. Justice ensures that we respect one another’s rights and fulfill our obligations and duties. Temperance gives us the self-control to forgo short-term pleasures in pursuit of our long-term goals. Fortitude will see us through to the end, whether we succeed or fail.
As St. Augustine put it:

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).

Self-improvement entails more than building up our bodies. We must improve our spirits as well.

"The Prototype Lefties"

 

I saw this on Farcebook, the lady that wrote the article, her name is Kriztina Maria, she had commented that the cartoon was an A.I. cartoon, Personally I would have had a couple of heavily overweight lesbians surrounded by cats, otherwise it was accurate 😁.  Still working a lot, hence the scattered posting.

He calls himself a critical thinker but has never had an original thought. She calls herself brave but only dares to say what her tribe already agrees with.

They are rarely stable. Broken families, broken relationships, a broken relationship with reality. Often without children, or with children they use as political props. Their careers are either non-existent or anchored in the public sector, in NGOs, in universities, in the media. Places where you are rewarded for repeating the right phrases, not for producing anything of value.

They are outsiders. Not because the world has rejected them, but because they could never find their footing in the normal. The family, the faith, the nation, the community, ordinary life… it is all too small for them. Or rather, it is too big. They cannot handle it. So they hate it.

They find each other because they cannot find anyone else. A cluster of offended souls mirroring each other’s anger and calling it solidarity.

They need enemies to feel alive. The white man. The Christian. The Jew. The patriot. The mother who chooses the home. The father who chooses his family. Everything healthy must come down, because it reminds them of everything they are not.

They are the aristocracy of victimhood. Identity built on wounds, status measured in marginalization. The more broken, the more power. That is why they invent new offenses every week. Without offense, no identity. Without an enemy, no meaning.

And that is why they are dangerous. A human being without their own life, without real love, without God, without responsibility… that person will always seek power over others. They cannot build. They can only tear down. That is their only productive ability.

History has seen them before. Robespierre. The Red Guards. The Stasi informants. It is never the strong, the free, the loving people who build guillotines. It is the empty ones.

Right now, in the West, in 2026, the institutional Left is the more dangerous, because it holds the power.

The far Right shouts from the margins. The Left writes the laws, controls the schools, defines the language, decides who is allowed to say what.

They are a minority. The hard, activist Left makes up only 8-15% of the population in the West. But they dominate, because they are carried forward by the media, the universities, the NGOs, the cultural institutions and large parts of the public apparatus.

Their voice sounds bigger than it is, because they have captured the microphones, not the hearts.

The popular majority in the West is moving to the right, toward tradition, toward borders, toward common sense. That is why the Left is becoming more and more aggressive and talks so much about “democracy being under threat”.

But what they really mean is that their monopoly is under threat.

I can understand why they are on edge these days. Because once the people rise - and we do - they will be pulled up by the roots and thrown onto the dustbin of history, where they belong.

(Picture is obviously AI-generated, but matches reality.)

Monday Music (Yeah I know it's Tuesday, Work with me here) Huey Lewis and the News "Walking on a Thin Line."

 

 I had decided to do the "Vietnam" songs for a bit because my Dads Birthday was in late January and he would have been 82, yeah I still miss him and Memorial Day was Yesterday and he was one of many that I remember for Memorial Day.

  Vietnam was a taboo subject for a while the wounds that the conflict left on the American Psyche was deep.  We had won the battles but lost the war because we as a nation had lost the will to fight it thanks to the media and the hippies and the antiwar movement that was funded by the communist party and liberal donors.  it took several years before Vietnam could be discussed outside of the veterans.  My Dad is a Vietnam Veteran, he did a tour in 1968 and dealt with the tunnels of Cu-Chi and the Tet Offensive, then he returned in 1972 for a second tour.   For a while especially in the 1970's, the Vietnam vet was portrayed as crazy or dangerous.  The specter of Vietnam dogged every use of the Military or any support during the 1980's, from Grenada, to Beirut, to Honduras and Nicaragua.  The Ghost of Vietnam were finally laid to rest during Desert Storm. 

 

 I heard this song while I was in North Georgia College in the college ROTC program.  I thought it was a good song, although the critics didn't care for it.  I thought it told a good story about a GI and the Vietnam experience and the coming back home. and still "walking a thin line".  This came out the same time other songs were coming out about Vietnam.  

"Walking On A Thin Line" is a song performed by Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1984 as the fifth and final single from their 1983 album, Sports.

Considered one of the band's more "serious" songs, "Walking On A Thin Line" was written by Andre Pessis and Kevin Wells.The Sacramento Bee thought the song was about a veteran's post-war stress. However, the song is really about the thoughts of serving Vietnam War soldiers and veterans in the midst of the war.

In live performances, Lewis would often dedicate the song to the casualties of the war in Vietnam, as well as the veterans. During some live performances, ESPN personality Chris Berman, who is a fan of the band, has shown up as a surprise guest, singing the song with the band. Berman, who met the band at an ESPN tenth anniversary party,when describing football highlights on NFL Live, will sometimes reference the chorus to the song.

Reception for the song was very mixed. Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone said that the song was "annoying", and added that, "wherein Lewis even sings "desperation" just like Men at Work's Colin Hay. The tune's a semistomper but is saddled with some repellent lines about a Vietnam serviceman–"I'm the boy next door/The one you find so easy to ignore/Is that what I was fighting for?"–that equate military service with Getting the Girl." Steve Morse of The Boston Globe thought that it was one of the band's more "serious" songs. Morse also thought that it was an "unusual piece" and that it was a "funky ode to Vietnam veterans"^]Robert Draper of the Austin Chronicle said that it showed that Lewis could show "signs of awareness." The Arizona Daily Star said that the song showed the band's "modest abilities for rockin' out." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic calls the song one of the songs on the album that has "memorable hooks, driven home with economical precision by a tight bar band, who are given just enough polish to make them sound like superstars."

 

In the United States, the song was the last single released from the album, Sports. It peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, the only single from the album not to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard charts. The song was a Top 20 hit on the Top Rock Tracks chart, peaking at #16. The single was released in Australia where it reached #70. 

 

This post is scheduled for Sunday afternoon on the Scheduler thingie.  I will not have a Monday Music like I normally do.  To me it would be inappropriate because it is Memorial Day.

    I'm going to explain "Memorial day" compared to the other holidays that involve the Military.

      Armed Forces Day honors those that are serving now.
      Veterans Day honors those of us that are no longer serving but still around to thank us for our    service.
   Memorial Day honors those of us that died in service to our country or those of us that have died since.
     To me Memorial day is a somber Holiday,  It gets worse the older I get because I attribute it to "survivors guilt".  We miss our comrades that will never grow old and one day we will join them.  Like I said, I attribute this to "survivors guilt" or basically why me and not them, why do I grow older and they don't.  What made me special that I lived and they didn't.  This goes through my mind and I just leave it to the guy upstairs because I figure that he still has plans for me. 
     I do what is called "Honor Guard" missions with my employer, where we greet all remains coming off the airplane with a flag line and a prayer.  I am honored to do that, been doing that since 2018. 
     I don't begrudge the people using the Memorial Day as an excuse for a vacation or the "Start of Summer".  At least they say the words "Memorial Day" in their conversations.  

There is a phrase I saw in the Movie "Gardens of Stone" that came out in 1987, and we started using it because it resonated with us. Here is  the trailer of the movie "Gardens of Stone".  I really like the movie partly it ties in with my Dads experiences because he was a member of the "Old Guard", although for him it was 1963-1964 for him.  He had told me that the things that the "Old Guard" did was accurately portrayed.

I hoist a glass of whatever beverage I drink on Memorial Day and say "Here's to us ...and those like us.....Damm few of us left."   I honor my friends that got killed during war and my friends that died after war from accidents, disease or suicide.

"Youth Wilding and the end of Civilization"

 

I call them "Amish" or the term bandied about is "MUY"  and that stands for "Minority Urban Youth" and that classification age wise goes all the way up to 25 years of age, according to media and academia and various activist groups.  They use that term to bash the cops about the head whenever one is "offed" by an officer for being "terminally Stupid", the death is used as a symbol of the cause.  The cause is to tear down Western civilization and install a Mao-marxist style of government in the name of "The People" but it will actually be for the benefit of the politicians and donors and the people rioting and looting are pure cannon fodder for the cause and will be used to get fired up for the next mob violence required for the cause.

Truth of the matter is that the people that riot and burn are the constitutes of the politicians and they provide political cover and and can act with impunity and loot and burn and nothing will happen for that reason.  

I'm not afraid to say it, the problem is mostly black youths in gangs and fatherless families, the sick welfare state, lack of prosecution and punishment, social media and the fake news that promote it. This is a serious growing epidemic that thrives in BLUE CITIES controlled by criminal loving dimocRATs. They certainly have a hard time putting black youths in jail. Citizens must finally rise up against the politicians that are allowing this trend to continue.

Youth Wilding And The End Of Civilization

By: SAM FADDIS

In 532 AD in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, rival gangs of young people associated with different sports clubs dominated public spaces and increasingly turned to violence.

They brawled, ambushed, and rioted. They defied authority. They terrorized innocent citizens. Then they threatened to bring down the system entirely.

On January 13, 532 the Blues and the Greens youth groups, united intent on taking control of the city itself. For almost a week, they succeeded. Large areas of the city were burned. Officials were killed. Homes were looted. It took the army to retake the city, and in the end, 30,000 people lay dead.

We may be headed in the same direction ourselves

All over America, young blacks in gangs, BLM supporters and young white ANTIFA members, some barely in their teens, are increasingly taking over public spaces and turning to violence. This trend began in inner cities, where swarms of young people began to coordinate their activities via social media and then appear in huge numbers, attacking people at random, robbing stores, and vandalizing personal property. It is no longer confined to such areas, however. The phenomenon is now moving out into the suburbs.

The problem is getting worse, and the level of violence involved is escalating. Municipalities respond with a mixture of curfews and increased police patrols, but none of this addresses the real problem. None of this recognizes the societal basis for this “wilding.”

The problem is our society. The problem is us. We have waged war on the family to the point that in places like Baltimore, 65% of black kids live in single-parent homes. Almost all these single parents are women. There is no father in the home. There never was. “Dad” left the moment he finished impregnating “Mom.” Consider that in 1960, when segregation was in full force across America, only 20% of black children lived in single-parent homes.

What does that say about the "Great Society" and its immense welfare programs? ALL FAILURES!

We might want to take a hard look at our welfare policies and consider that what we are doing is causing more harm than good.

We have demonized the police. We have branded them as oppressors and racists and glorified those who resist arrest and target law enforcement. We have taught our kids to be hooligans.

We have glorified moral relativism. Right and wrong do not exist. God does not exist. Decency does not exist. You should do whatever turns you on and makes you feel good.

We have preached victimization. Nothing is your fault. Everything is someone else’s fault. Stealing is now simply the “redistribution” of wealth. If you are looting a store, you are not a criminal. You are simply collecting the reparations due to you for some perceived wrong you have suffered.

Society is sick. Our children’s behavior is a symptom of something much more profound. We need to face that and correct course before we suffer the same fate as the Byzantines. The wilding of our youth is a sign of the impending end of civilization – unless we do something to prevent it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MyPjl4-n6M