Two years after the passing of scholar Peter Lawler, a reflection on his vision of honor and virtue takes center stage. The discussion emphasizes how to navigate a world rife with vulgarity and self-interest. Listeners are invited to contemplate the path from despair to a society recognizing the essence of gentlemanly behavior. The importance of fulfilling one’s potential through goodness is a key theme, honoring the legacy of a man who truly lived by his ideals.
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Modern Society's Flaws
Modern society often displays vulgarity, corruption, oversharing, and selfishness.
Some embrace these traits openly, while others hide their wickedness behind a facade of virtue.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Embrace Goodness and Potential
Meditate on Peter Lawler's thoughts on manliness, virtue, and purpose.
Strive to live a good life and fulfill your potential.
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Two years ago, the world lost a great scholar and Stoic philosopher, Peter Lawler. Peter, a longtime writer for National Review and political science professor at Berry College, was the kind of person interested in those seemingly archaic notions of honor and virtue and duty (you can read the interview Peter did with us just a few weeks before his untimely death). He also, according to his friends, was the kind of person who lived those ideals.
We live in a time of vulgarity and corruption and oversharing and selfishness. Some embrace these traits openly, others pay lip service to virtue while leading wicked private lives, others contribute to the decline and fall of goodness by trying to tear down everything that isn’t perfect or pure.
It would be wonderful if you could take a moment today—whether you’re a man or a woman—to meditate on this thought from Peter’s final essay, which was published on the eve of his death:
“Now’s the time to praise manliness, but only in the context of showing the road from anger, meaninglessness, and despair to a world once again full of ladies and gentlemen—people who know who they are and what they’re supposed to do as beings born to know, love, and die, and designed for more than merely biological existence.”
That’s the best way that we can honor Peter’s life—through goodness and fulfilling our potential. Thank you, Peter.
The Daily Stoic