“Deracinated Citizens Lost in an Ocean of Relativistic Chaos”

“The idea that the law should rule before any one of the citizens is of ancient pedigree, being traceable at least to the 4th century BC in Aristotle’s Politics. However, the claim that the rule of law necessitates perfect indifference to all moral issues (except when harm is suffered without consent) is a distinctly modern innovation. In stark contrast to this modern idea, thinkers of classical antiquity and medieval Christendom recognized that a legal order that reduces human relations to a pure calculus of consent, harm, and maximal autonomy would soon find itself presiding over a mass of deracinated citizens lost in an ocean of relativistic chaos. Our post-Christian societies are already husks of their more ethically rich former selves, due to a gradual breakdown of confidence in our right or even ability to judge between good and evil.” – Harrison Pitt, “Moral Chaos Writ Large, Part II: Restoring Ethics to the Rule of Law,” The European Conservative, June 16, 2022.