Conclusion: exploring the heart of civic darkness

Abstract

This article is a synthesis of Volume II of Public Policy and Administration: The Minnowbrook Perspective and an extension of the arguments found herein. And, it is an application of issues of ethics and morality to this volume. The author calls for a return to civility in public discourse and to Plato's conception of virtue, and particularly public virtue. New versions of civic space are important. The American emphasis on individualism must be tempered by a greater concern for the common good and the public interest. To achieve this public administrators must be both examples and representative citizens. Cyrano: Perhaps I do exaggerate—a little. Le Bret: You see! Cyrano: But for the sake of principle. Also in practice I have often found Exaggeration works extremely well. —Edmund Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. —James 1:15 “Civic darkness” and “sin” are offputting words. “Offputting” is also an offputting word, but we must do what we can to follow Cyrano's a...