The Sacred and Our Moral Restraints

It is a core conservative principle that free markets can only exist so long as there is a strong sense of public virtue or moral restraint. Most of our moral restraints have a direct correlation to how in tune we are with the sacred. For instance, conservatives are much more likely than their libertarian counterparts to oppose prostitution, even between consenting adults, because of the Christian belief that the body and sex are sacred.

It seems, therefore, that the less sacramental we become directly hinders the effectiveness of our moral restraints. The fewer things we see through a sacramental lens, the more susceptible they are to commodification and being blown wherever the market forces take them. The prior success and stability of democratic capitalism depended on the majority of people holding certain things sacred and separate from the market.

In getting us out of our current mess, a major task of conservatives will be to rediscover the sacredness of ordinary things. One of the keys must be defending private property, not merely the right to it, but as something sacred in and of itself. Private property, or home, should not be seen as a commodity that’s purpose is to be bought and sold whenever convenient. It instead should be seen as a connecting link between the generations past and future.

The Old Testament example of Naboth’s vineyard is instructive here. It is a favorite of conservatives because it affirms the rightness of private property, yet it is seldom mentioned by capitalists that it was also right for Naboth not to sell his land. Naboth was righteous because he recognized the land was not entirely his to sell. He had what Eliot called piety towards the dead and solicitude for the unborn.

It is a form of desecration to see private property only as a commodity to be traded. It is so much more than that. If it were nothing more than a commodity, it would prove that private property has no intrinsic worth and is not deserving of any defense. Only reestablishing the sacredness of the ordinary things can save us.