If someone were to ask you what kind of heroes the world needs most right now, there’s a lot of possible answers.
Here’s one that might be easily overlooked: The world needs more people who understand the essential connection between freedom and personal character.
Ancient Rome rose to greatness during its Republic years, in part, because of the personal character its people were willing to practice.
This doesn’t mean that they were perfect, but when they focused on self-responsibility and self-reliance, they thrived.
By the same token, when they let their guard and their character down and started voting themselves benefits, they soon found themselves bought and paid for by a welfare state.
While this may seem to be of interest only to academics and historians, the truth is that our society has a lot more in common with ancient Rome than we’d like to admit.
Historically, no civilization has lost its character and kept its liberties.
It’s not a matter of simply electing the right politicians or enacting the right policies.
It comes down to what kind of people we are individually.
To develop the kind of character that is congruent with freedom requires intellectual humility, honesty and commitment to the truth, even when it is inconvenient.
It calls for patience, courage, optimism and the ability to inspire greatness in others.
Becoming a person of unshakable character in our time is nothing short of heroic.
But that’s exactly what the world needs.
Building Unshakeable Personal Character