The Good Life

I've no doubt that virtue is making a comeback, albeit more similar to a Brittany Spears comeback than something more solid. If I recall the polls right, people used to care less if a leader had virtue or not--they just wanted to know that he or she did a good job, made them money, etc. The majority didn't care what Bill Clinton did in his private life, virtuous or not, they just loved him because he was doing what they wanted as a President.

I might suggest that virtue was simply used as a juxtaposition in the recent election--it was the cool thing to do, since it was the opposite of what people thought was going on in government at the time.

I will not quarrel with any of your ideas here, except to note that the shelf life of virtue is probably a bit longer than that of Britney Spears. At least I hope so. (Oops, I said it again.)

Chris Peterson

My number one signature strength is Fairness and Justice. As I hear all of prouncements about the new administration (i.e. "he is the light of the new age")my inner alarm bells are going off that people are being just as unfair now as they have been over the last eight years. Instead of looking objectively at the previous administration of this one, the people with the most glorious remarks for this president and the most hateful comments about the last one are very likely to have the following guiding principles in mind:

My parents were Democrat = me being a Democrat regardless of the times or the qualifications of the Democrat running for office

Democrat = Always means right, just, and peace loving
Republican = Always means evil, racist, war loving

Sorry, my signature strength many, many, many people have turned off or down their ability to be fair and objective. In their minds, 1-20-09 Peace and Love. Pre-1-20-09 Hatred and Evil. Give me a break.

Thank you for the article, Dr. Peterson. I read President Obama's inaugural speech, and like many, I found it eloquent and inspiring, but I hadn't really noticed quite how much of it revolved around virtues. What it initially left me with was a sense that we had someone in office who was a great leader.

In response to the previous comment, I am not one who relates the previous administration to evil. A recent e-mail quiz my friends had been passing around asked "Would you have dinner with George W. Bush?" and I was surprised by how many people would not (one even said they would throw mashed potatoes at him). I may not agree with the majority of his policies, but that does not mean he did not try his best, with good intentions.

However, I did not find that his values were in line with mine, much of the time, which is why the new administration seems like such a change to me (at least in what we have seen until now). Not only does President Obama have values more in line with mine, but he seems to have the strength of will to stick to them, even when I waver. In the virtues that he preaches, I see not only that he seems to possess and stay true to them, but I see room for improvement myself.

So to me, his speech was very inspirational. It not only outlined qualities that everyone would ideally possess, but it gave a sense that he values and strives for these qualities himself, and that in turn makes me feel that I should strive for them more as well. And indeed everyone should.

Is he the only one who could have recognized and outlined these virtues for us? Certainly not. As he correctly points out, these have been virtues in all cultures for much of human history. Dr. Peterson outlined them for us even before Obama's speech, Benjamin Franklin as he mentioned did so during his life, and various political and religious leaders of ages past have as well.

The difference here is that Mr. Obama has managed to get our attention and to drive that message home, when we were preoccupied with other things. And of course now, the challenge for all of us, and especially Mr. Obama, will be to live up to these virtues.