Pulitzer-winning war journalist Chris Hedges spoke about both the perils and the power of virtue during his visit to Plenary. Hedges introduced the concept of virtue through a personal story about his father’s removal from the Presbyterian church following his outspoken support of same-sex marriage. The story centers action as critical to virtue: to Hedges, his father’s willingness to stand up for his beliefs, not the beliefs in and of themselves, demonstrated virtue. The story also indicates that virtue comes with a cost. Hedges’ father—like other leaders Hedges invoked as virtuous, including Martin Luther King and Malcolm X—became the target of exclusion and violence because of his virtue. Yet that very virtue was critical was also critical in his efforts to build a better, more inclusive world. Hedges explained that “when you live a moral life and you’re willing to stand up […] you have power” (Hedges, Plenary conversation). To him, virtue creates an inner foundation from which individuals can take action to enact just change.
Hedges’ focus on virtue in action meant that he skimmed over another, more controversial question of virtue: the qualities that individuals and societies consider virtuous (Hedges, Plenary conversation). In Chapter 3 of his book From Plantation to Paradise?, David M. Powers highlights that issue by quoting shareholders of the French colonial operahouse of Cap Français, who explain colonizers’ understanding of virtue in relation to opera. According to the shareholders, opera satisfies individuals’ desire for pleasure in a way acceptable to French society and “refine[s]” their morals to align with French standards. It thus “softens character and inspires virtue” (qtd. in Powers 68). The shareholders’ quotes demonstrate that, to Cap Français colonizers, virtue entailed alignment with Eurocentric values. Ultimately, colonizers’ understanding of European social standards as virtues allowed them to emphasize virtue in their “cultural political campaign” for control of Cap Français and other Anitillian islands (68, emphasis removed).
The above instance from Plantation and Paradise? demonstrates that the concept of virtue can be manipulated to promote certain cultural ideals at the expense of others. Pierpaolo Polzonetti’s article “Don Giovanni Goes to Prison: Teaching Opera Behind Bars” further demonstrates virtue’s troubling importance in colonial initiatives. Polzonetti suggests that educating prisoners about opera will lead them away from crime towards lives of “virtue” (Polzonetti). However, commentators on Polzonetti’s article say that promoting opera’s virtue in comparison to other music forms—especially rap—reflects an elitist, classist and perhaps even racist stance (Comments). These comments call out the fact that any understanding of virtue comes with assumptions about which specific qualities are virtuous. For Polzonetti, those qualities center upper-class and Eurocentric viewpoints. The “virtue” they connote therefore contributes to discrimination and perpetuates stereotypes rather than—as Hedges contends—constructing foundations from which individuals can pursue justice.
