That led to Rousseau’s second insight. If men are to be happy, love of self must be replaced by the love of community. Here he came down firmly on the side of ancient versus modern liberty and on the side of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who assume the proportions of a race of superheroes in his mind.15 “What prevents us from being the kind of men they were?” he asked. “The passions of self interest,” which, “along with an indifference to the welfare of others,” have been set loose by a corrupt modern society. Replace them with the right kinds of laws and institutions, Rousseau believed—those
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