The encyclical reminds us that because human beings have the capacity to discern the truth of things and the ability to act on that discernment we can know the right thing to do. This intrepid affirmation in today's cultural climate, in which a benign skepticism and relativism are frequently thought to be the best that we can do, challenges us to overcome our spiritual acedia or torpor. John Paul insists that we can do better because we are better. And he believes that we have to do better, if our freedom is to support genuine human flourishing. The ordered liberty of civil society presupposes some fundament of moral consensus.
Democracy depends on enough people being willing to do the right thing.
The Protestant English who first came to America were either dissidents from the Church of England or puritan partisans of that Church. They took Christian piety for granted and spontaneously but unreflectively followed substantially the moral code of medieval Europe. This Puritan strain, according to Weigel, represented one of the three great philosophic strains in American culture. The puritanism of the original English settlers was characterized by a belief in local government in church and state wherein all members had a voice in the making of communal policy. Puritans were a people dedicated to the principles of sobriety and simplicity and they believed in the value of work and personal responsibility.