On Prudence

Bureaucracy stems from a desire to formalize virtue. When a particular habit or policy fails to deliver order, the impulse of leaders, especially in a democracy, is to impose bigger and more comprehensive rules to make sure the mistake does not happen again.

 

Over time, reliance on virtuous people yields to a dependency on virtuous rules, regulations, policies, checks, balances and systematic accountability. This is the essence of bureaucracy.

 

In bureaucratic cultures, practical judgment and personal virtues are deemphasized. Praise and appreciation instead accrue to those who follow the rules and who go by the book.

 

From there, the law itself comes to define public morality. “If it is legal,” bends the logic of a bureaucratic society, “it must be acceptable.”

 

Freedom, however, thrives by prudence, a virtue predicated upon practical reason. It entails discernment of the true good surrounding every situation and the moral means of achieving it.

 

Prudence is antithetic to bureaucracy. It elevates individual responsibility and secures liberty.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas identified various parts of prudence. He characterized acquired prudence as perfected through the exercise of acts and lessons.

 

Also, he wrote of gratuitous prudence which is infused and reinforced by virtuous habits, for example, those modeled by good parenting, religion, perhaps schooling.

The Founding Fathers believed every man should share in the governing of America according to the free choice of his reason, and that it is proper for all self-governing citizens to possess the virtue of prudence. Abraham Lincoln spoke persistently about the necessity of prudence.

 

It is a core American virtue about which Americans scarcely speak anymore. Yet, prudence is the most powerful and complete remedy for the disease of bureaucracy.

Prudence promotes freedom which is why we rely on it, and speak often of it.