Balance?

Having been tested and found to be a liberal asshole, I am relieved to find a ray of hope. I like to think of myself as a Classical liberal (definitely not liberal by modern standards). Now comes Victor Davis Hanson on Classical Values (not my blog, just the concept, which I like to capitalize):

The Greeks were fascinated with the need to adhere to the mean (to meson). The idea became commonplace that there was a sort of natural equilibrium in things that tended to pull events, emotions, and people themselves back to the center, away from both hubris and inaction.

I think such a classical concept of the need for balance can explain (though in ways many it would not appreciate) many of the crises of the last two years — at least far better than does the caricature of Mr. Bush and his administration as shoot-from-the-hip cowboys unfamiliar with the unnecessary requisites of polite diplomacy.

....

Over the past two years we have been trying to return from an out-of-kilter past to the mean: to a place where terrorists do not believe it is tolerable to poach some Americans, where nations do not unleash their stealthy killers loose against us, where we cease ignoring — or paying bribes — to murderers, and where our allies resemble friends rather than enemies.

I like that, and I appreciate Mr. Hanson's praise of the ancients.

The way some conservatives routinely smear the ancients, it is refreshing to see one highly respected conservative praise them.