WHY MORALISM DOES NOT WORK
Please Understand, for the sake of kindness.
From Thomas Banchoff, Liberals and conservatives shy away from this core Catholic teaching, Cruelty is ravaging politics. What happened to mercy? The Washington Post.
November 13, 2025
“Liberals and conservatives shy away from mercy in politics. Conservatives see mercy as a moral virtue to be practiced in family and community settings that has little place in political life, where the clash of interests and the rule of law should prevail. Liberals tend to see mercy as a poor substitute for justice. While it evokes the reality of suffering and the moral obligation of the powerful to address it, mercy downplays the agency of the downtrodden and their demands for systemic change. While not opposed to personal and community engagement on behalf of the poor and marginalized, liberals place greater emphasis on social justice through state action.”
The point if you do not yet get it is, that a system of moralism is the intellectual architecture for both right and left politics, and it does not work for a kind, merciful, society. Tolerance, to say nothing of rights and respect, have been left behind. The thinking has gone to the extreme of the worship of moral obligations.
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Neville Buch
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