Thanks for coming today on this beautiful friday and excited to introduce to you john burtka president and chief executive officer of isi. He graduated from Hillsdale College with degrees in french and christian studies and earned a graduate degree in theology from la faculte. Jean calvin, an ex in provence, france. Johnny began his career at isi, where he served as a development officer. He returned to isi after four years at the american conservative magazine, where he served as executor of director and acting editor. Johnny has appeared on fox news and fox business and has written for the washington post, the Richmond Times dispatch. The first things the American Mind and the intercollegiate review, among other publications. He has been a lincoln fellow at the Claremont Institute and has participated in academic fellowships at Washington College and the trinity forum. Johnny lives in pennsylvania with his wife amanda. Good morning and welcome. Thank you to the Heritage Foundation for as well as to my friends wholl be joining me on the panel in a moment. I want to begin with a question. How many of you have heard of the books . Good to great by jim collins or 0 to 1 by peter thiel. Most of you are familiar with these. These are all part of a popular selfhelp for entrepreneurs, helping them to become the next steve jobs or to found the next unicorn company. Our culture is saturated with these business books. Yet when we look to the political sphere, nothing comparable exists for statesmen or aspiring statesmen. And this is a historic of epic proportions. And its particularly ironic, given how much americans complain about their Political Leadership here in washington, d. C. So my book, gateway to statesmanship, exists to fill this void going back to 15, 16 in the renaissance humanist erasmus of rotterdam wrote, the main hope of getting a good prince hangs on his proper education. His audience was the young Prince Charles who would go on to become the holy roman emperor. Charles, the fifth. And this. This quote was part of a letter that he had wrote to the young prince. And it was part of a tradition called the mirrors for princes. This tradition goes all the way back to antiquity. It exists in nearly every civilization, east and west. Some of the text you are probably familiar with, like xenophons the education of cyrus. Julius caesar is said to have never left for a battle without carrying copies of xenophons education, even on scrolls or ciceros on duties. This book in particular shaped the thinking of many Early Church Fathers and then all the way in the renaissance periods, see thomas moore never leaving the house without a copy of ciceros on duties with him in his breast pocket. But there are many other books from from hahn fe and china to kautilya in to a iapetus the deacon and byzantium that have largely been forgotten by history as a whole. This tradition contains the political wisdom of mankind. And. And despite shaping and having a profound impact, even on some of our american founders like washington, jefferson, hamilton and others, the tradition is largely extinct today. In fact, i think my my book is actually the first collection of these texts thats been published since the renaissance. So whats on here . Well, there are at least three factors that contributed to the disappearance of this great genre. The first was the historic shift from monarchical forms of government to representative governments in the modern era. It was a little bit easier when you knew who the young prince was to write a book or a letter and offer your services, either as an educator hoping to be a tutor to a young prince or princess, or if you were aiming to be a, you know, a court official, you could present it sort of as a, you know, a practical and policy manifesto for a new administration and hopes that you might get hired. Now, many of the the authors in this tradition actually got killed in the service of the kings that they served. And so some of these texts actually didnt do much good. At the time that they were actually written, their impact was hundreds or even thousands of years later, when it was gifted and presented to others, when they came to power. But theres no reason that we couldnt have a revival of this tradition. Mirrors for president s or mirrors for senators. Tradition in our own day. The two other reasons. First, there was a shift in beginning of the progressive era away from classically understood towards management and expertise and bureaucracy. People were a little bit uneasy with the idea of a great souled leader with his or her hand on the rudder of the ship of state, navigating the boat through in tumult to us waters and unpredictable winds, relying on the virtue of prudence and other classical inspiration. And and and so there was a shift. It felt a little bit safer to have experts manage society and to focus more on bureaucratic management. And then finally, our Higher Education system in america just stopped teaching many of these classic texts. They are guilty of what lewis called presentism, which is basically if it if it wasnt written in the last 10 minutes, theyre either ignorant of it or they believe that its stained with the guilt of sins from previous eras, and they dont really want to touch it. So whats needed today is a process of rediscovery and redeployment. We must remind ourselves that previous generations gave careful thought to the quality that they wanted to see in their political leaders. And they set very hard, very high bars for their own leaders. So we need to make the effort to actually do that in our own day. In my book is a first start at that in a collection of these classic texts from throughout history. But i eagerly anticipated many other mirrors being set forth in front of our leaders today. The second thing that we need to do is build institutions of Higher Learning that are capable of transmitting this knowledge to the next generation. I went to Hillsdale College, had the privilege of going there, but there deserves to be a hillsdale and at least every state in it. I saw. Our work is really educating College Students in these classic texts, giving them the education theyre not getting in the classroom, but the work could be multiplied a thousand fold. If we want to have the impact that we need and its also important to remember that this tradition wasnt just taught in universities, this was really a one on one pupil mentor relationship. And that cost a little bit less money than founding a university. It would be more easy to revive that today. In ideally, this happens between individuals who are living, you know, at the same time. But if youre not lucky enough to have someone like that, you can pick up any of these classic authors and make them your own personal tutor. So America Today finds itself in a moment of crisis. We have 36 trillion in debt. We have a crisis at our southern border. We have a cultural crisis at home. And all throughout the world. Were faced with multiple Foreign Policy crises. And so were in search of a statesman and a point like this. Its important to remember, especially throughout the mirrors, for tradition, you dont often get to pick your leaders. Thats not only true in monarchies, its also true. And democracies, great leaders are emerge. And they come to the fore when virtue and fortune intersect. Often at a moment of crisis, take for example, George Washington. If he was born ten years earlier or ten years later, we might not know his name today. And the United States of america might not exist as we know it. So here we are today against the backdrop of many profound challenges facing our nation. And there are a few fundamental lessons from the mirrors for princes that i think are of relevance as we seek to identify and educate a new generation who can who can save America First . Realism. We must have leaders who take stock of the world as it actually is. I like to. I think kevin roberts, president heritage is absolutely right. When he asks the question, do you know what time it is in america, you have to understand the actual circum stances on the ground before you can even to imagine the world that you would like to build in this tradition. In particular, we could turn to machiavelli, whos included in this collection for advice. But today, id like to focus on saint thomas more. To me, thomas more is the quintessential christian realist. And in his book, utopia, hes describing a conversation, a fictional character named thomas moore, and another character named rafael. Rafael is a traveling intellectual. Hes a man of the world. He claims to have a lot of experience. He read a lot of books. And so hes dialoging with thomas more. And thomas more says, you know, youre so wise, rafael, have you ever considered entering into the council of a king, getting your hands dirty in the business of politics . And rafael was was offended. He said, you know, no, absolutely. You know, i could not bear to see my beautiful ideas sullied and dirtied by a king or by a prince. You know, politics is far too messy business for me. Id prefer to stay in the ivory tower and thomas more rebukes him. Even you can sense the anger in the text and basically calls him a fool and says, you know, you simply the way that it works. And ill actually share the quote here is you have to through the drama at hand as best as you can and dont spoil it all simply because you happen to. Think another one would be better. Thats things go in the commonwealth and in the council princes. If you cannot pluck up bad ideas by the root, if you cannot long standing evils as completely as you would like, you must not therefore abandon the commonwealth. Dont give up a ship in a storm because you cannot direct the winds. And he followed this own this advice and his own life. And eventually, in his famous last words, deeds died. The kings good servant. But gods first and lost his head in service to his king. But he had this realist understanding. That i think its very important for us to recover today. Second, we must reclaim. Transform ascendance and the common good. So realism and interest, all important correctives from the the utopian globalism that had enthralled dc after the the end of the cold war is not an end in itself. Its not sufficient. There are higher than realism and interests need to be taken into consideration for great leaders. So transcend its right great leaders throughout history have embodied the people they represent, but theyve actually often risen above dueling of aristocrats or oligarchs to reorient the regime towards more permanent and transcendent ends than politics. Right. Like in aristotles ethics, theyre pointing the regime towards the good, even towards god himself. You see this in xenophons portrait of cyrus when he was on his military campaigns, he said i always try to begin with the gods, not only in great matters, but even in small ones, because he thought that beginning with the gods would actually make his men more pious, make them more restrained and virtuous, which would be helpful on their military campaigns. You see this in alfarabi, the islamic thinker. Ive included, he writes, interestingly, the one who cures bodies is the physician and the one who cures souls is the statesman. So theres an element soul craft in Political Leadership. And then in our own american tradition, in our own distinct way, we see this in the tradition of thanksgiving day proclamations with washington and lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. And you see them aside days of thanksgiving and to orient the regime god. You see Teddy Roosevelt, even saying, you know, the things of the body are important, but we cant be drowning in materialism, the things of the mind higher. But its the things of the soul that are highest. And we need to recover that as a people. Next we have the common good. One important point from cicero in the book is a great leader doesnt focus merely on partizan or class interest. Now, obviously, i understand in washington, d. C. , you have to play for one of the two teams, the red team, the blue team. And also candidates have to elections. But a mark a great leader is that they actually have a vision for the flourishing of the whole body politic and the common good, you know, manifest differently in each particular community. But the fundamentals are, you know, the basic tempore conditions need to be met. So that individuals can live lives of virtue. There needs to be rule of law. There needs to be law of law and order. There needs to be from foreign invasion. And lastly, there needs to be broad based economic prosperity. And its interesting looking at the economic advice found in this tradition, because theres product theres a productive tension between. The two warnings, on one hand, you see this sort of runs all the way from cicero to machiavelli to erasmus warnings about having taxes being too high. Right. They generally say you want to keep taxes low. You dont want to crush the economy. You dont want to smother people. Machiavelli, rather humorous, humorous lee says that a man will more easily forgive you if you kill his father than if you take his land. So theres a strong a strong warning not to tax people too high. At the same time, there are repeated warnings against income. And the reason for this actually isnt necessarily it doesnt really necessarily have to do with justice, although you could explore the justice angle, it really has to do with the the stability of a regime because a highly unequal regime is one that is very unstable. And if youre a political leader, especially in the ancient world order and stability really was a precondition for justice. And so if things are highly unequal, this you know, these are the warning lights that are going off on your dashboard. If youre a leader. And its something that you should concern yourself with. And finally, must take beauty seriously. We must have an esthetic vision that we lead with for all of our policies. Most people are not persuaded by logic and reasoning, first and foremost, their imaginations are captivated through beauty. And then the ideas come along afterwards and help sort of rationally make sense of what is persuading them. Great leaders paint on a big canvas, a beautiful vision of the world that they want people to inhabit, and they give them the confidence that they are the person to bring that about. This is why you see great leaders are almost always great builders of beautiful things. One of my favorite historic figures is justinian the great in the eastern roman empire, and i actually have some advice offered to justinian included in the. But he built the hagia sophia, a church that stands hundred years later, one that was so beautiful that it converted entire nations to orthodox christianity because they believed that heaven descended upon earth and particular building. He was also a lawgiver and the code of justinian. To this very day, you know, it shaped roman law. And then it today, you know, impacts european law. And so he he sees in his law giving with building beautiful. I would even go so far as to say that the common refrain you know ideas have consequences is a little bit. This is not a knock on richard weaver. I know there are a lot of weaver fans that i saw and in the audience, but i think its it overstates the role of ideas in in shaping politics in the world. I, you know, looking at this tradition, i really see it as lead. Right. They create and beautiful realities. And then the ideas come along and they make sense of afterwards. I even think this applies with our own u. S. Constitution it was a document that aimed at union the goal was union while preserving liberty, but it was forged in the fire of debate and of compromise. And once they finally got a union that stuck, then the ideas people come along and they write the federalist papers and they do the work of actually persuading people and reasoning through what was just created. So realism, transcendence, common, good and these are the qualities that needs to be revived this day. So in conclusion, we cant predict our future. I know if you talk to many people, they say, you know, 2024, this feels like an intense moment of crisis. We feel like something bad is about to happen we dont know that thats the case. But that doesnt give us an excuse. We must prepare for the future and no one prepared for the future better in his own day than Charles De Gaulle. And so one of the things that i did with this book, even though the mirrors for prince, is tradition largely ended at the end of the renaissance ive included some more modern texts in here to. Help update the tradition to the present day. So ive included one from Charles De Gaulle called the edge of the sword. So this was something that he wrote in his early thirties. And what i love about this is at this point, his life, he hadnt really accomplished anything. He was a prisoner of war during war one, but that was largely a, you know, a post where he know he was locked up, but he basically drank, smoked cigarets all day, read a lot of old books. He felt guilty that he wasnt able to do something more great with his life. And so he sat down and he basically wrote own mirrors for princes, describing the ideal qualities of a leader drawing from aristotles magnanimous man. And then he set out the rest of his life to become the man that he described on those pages. Later in life, he would defend france from the nazi invasion would found the fifth french republic. He serve as its first president and then usher in a whole new paradigm of Economic Growth and prosperity in france. So it will take de gaulles extraordinary level of ambition directed towards the proper ends if we are going to do two things that will help to restore our country. First, articulate the qualities that we would like to see in our own american political leaders. And second, expand the institutions education required to pass on this tradition to the next generation. If we can do those two things, we will raise the odds that one or several heroes will emerge in politics, but also in and business and in education that can help to restore the happiness, the safety and the independence the american people. Thank you. Okay, ill take the form of. So i am daniel mccarthy, the editor of modern age, which is isis quarterly journal. And im also the Vice President of the collegian network a