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IT IS TIME TO END OUR COMPROMISE WITH TYRANNY |
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Written by Dr. Joel Wade
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Friday, 28 May 2010 |
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9-11-01, I was at my office, and I ran into a colleague
who shared the office space. I had mentioned how troubling these attacks were,
and he said something that shocked me: "I'm really not that upset about it.
I've been reading a lot of the anti-war sites, and I feel much less concerned
about these attacks than you are."
Trying to contain my building anger at this smug and self-righteous prig, I
asked him what he reads that seems to comfort him so. To which he responded, "Oh,
Noam Chomsky, and some of the Marxist sites." Then he said how he reads these
sites, and watches the regular news, and figures that somewhere between these
two views lies something like the truth.
I could hardly bear to remain in this person's presence. The ignorance and
condescension toward our country was stunning and infuriating. I found another
office soon afterwards.
But the one thought that really stuck with me from this interaction was the
idea that this fellow could somehow find balance between the main stream media
and an evil vision like that of Noam Chomsky and Marxism.
Would he find it balanced, I wondered, to look for the middle ground between
Nazism and the main stream media? Racism and individualism? Slavery and
individual liberty?
I don't think he had ever considered looking at his stance from this
perspective.
And yet we as conservative/libertarian/constitutionalist people have for
many decades now been drawn into a scenario where we have been continually
asked to compromise with fascism.
At each step, with each new administration - Republican or Democrat,
including even our beloved Ronald Reagan, we have seen the power and
centralization of our federal, state, and local government grow, its intrusion
into our lives expand, and its presence in our daily lives become ever more
insidious.
The only exception to this trend since the beginning of the progressive era
in 1913 with Woodrow Wilson - perhaps more accurately labeled the fascist era -
was with the Harding/Coolidge administrations.
Why do we condone this? How is it that we have allowed our politicians to
betray the principles of our Constitution?
Because we have accepted the premise of moral goodness claimed by those who
would enforce equality of outcome through government force; or, said in slicker
fashion, spreading the wealth around - at the point of a gun.
We, as compassionate and caring people, have been seduced by the sweet ideal
of eliminating poverty, helping the poor, giving those in need a hand, and
making ours a kinder, gentler world.
The trouble is, we took this bait as it was, wrapped around a deadly, barbed
hook: the premise that it is the use of government
force and guns that can and should nurture such a vision.
But this premise goes against the truth of human nature. Every parent who
has been paying attention knows full well that when you give your children help
without understanding how that help affects them personally, it can lead to
disastrous effects.
For one child, supporting them with tuition for college, room and board, and
lots of love and encouragement can be a perfect way to support their budding
skills and ambition. For another child, this same support serves only to buy
them four years of partying and the equivalent of a break from real world
responsibilities.
For one child, talking with their teacher about problems they are having at
school helps them to feel loved and supported, and helps to guide them through
some temporary tough times. For another child it is a way of protecting them
from some difficult but necessary natural consequences.
The premise that the government should take care of people, provide for
their health care, necessities, and retirement income, is wrong on so many
levels. And yet we have allowed this premise to take the moral high ground in
our political negotiations.
First, it is wrong strategically.
Just as it takes knowing a child to understand how to help a child, it takes
knowing a person whom you wish to help in order to help him or her effectively.
You cannot just set up a generic program to "help people" and have it actually
help very many people at all.
More than likely you will get what we have created, and what every welfare
state has created: an underclass of dependent, helpless, and depressed people,
and an overclass of government saviors, full of their own self-importance and
hubris.
If you want to truly help people, you do it as most of us do: individually,
or through small groups, churches, and neighborhood organizations, where those
doing the helping come to know those whom they seek to help. This is what makes
true compassion and effective assistance possible.
Second, it is wrong economically.
To reward those who do not create and produce because they do not create or produce - and to punish those who
create and produce because they
create and produce - encourages less
creation and production, less wealth as a culture, and a lower standard of
living than would otherwise exist.
Third, it is wrong definitionally,
since the premise was originally that these programs were necessary to help the poor. This is akin to
diagnosing an entire normal classroom of students as learning disabled, when by
definition they are normal. They
might not be your ideal of perfection, but they are a normal cross section of
young humanity, nonetheless.
Fourth, it is wrong psychologically,
since it creates an "us-versus-them" mentality of greed - and its passive
correlate, envy. Having the government in charge of administrating human
kindness creates a rigid and hyper-vigilant mindset, focused on forcing
equality (again, this means with government guns) where none exists or is even
possible.
We are all different, and the core of healthy psychological functioning is
grounded in self-acceptance - knowing who you are, your strengths and
weaknesses, your skills and shortcomings - and adapting and crafting your life
to be congruent with your unique capabilities and interests.
Fifth, it is wrong culturally.
Culture is what we create as groups of human beings; what we can pass along to
others, and what we can build together as an improvement of our general
capacity for living. To focus on equality of outcome as an end is to place sole
emphasis on getting by; on achieving relief from negative stress of competing and
striving, and on centering our focus on the lowest common denominator.
Such a focus does not inspire people to strive, to grow, to seek the
satisfaction that can only come from creative and productive work. It creates
instead a passive, dependent society, where the avoidance of pain, hardship,
and blame becomes paramount.
Sixth, it is wrong historically.
We have seen what happens with cultures elevate forced equality of outcome
above individual striving and initiative. And we have seen what happens when the
reverse is allowed to flourish.
A free society, based upon the principles of individual liberty and
self-responsibility is a vibrant, creative, and compassionate society. A
command society, based upon forced molding of human behavior toward an
idealistic end, is a stagnant, fearful, envious, and harsh society.
Because we are not blank slates we are not moldable as those favoring a
command society believe. We can be terrorized, we can become so worried about
the consequences of non-compliance that we submit to authority, but we are not
molded - only overpowered and humiliated.
(I have personally traveled to many countries, some valuing the former, some
the latter. I have seen with my own eyes the impact of these values in action.)
Seventh, and finally, it is wrong
morally.
If there is anything that can be said with authority and moral certainty, it
is that human slavery is an evil that should not be tolerated. The idea that
one man can own another, can force him to labor and yield his life to the will
of another man, is repugnant to all freedom loving people.
The greatest chapters in human political moral history have been those that
concerned human liberation: liberation from slavery, liberation from tyranny,
liberation from communism and fascism.
The idea that some men can be allowed to hold the reins of power over other
men is no less evil or repugnant when it is done through the force of
government, than it is through holding of private title over individual slaves.
This last is where we find ourselves today. We, and our forefathers and
foremothers spanning the course of the progressive era - from the early 1900s
to the present - have allowed the re-instatement of slavery through government
regulation, taxation, and the uncoupling of government power from the
fundamental legal document of America, the document that was crafted specifically to protect our individual
freedom: the Constitution of the United States of America.
It is time that we end our compromise with tyranny. It is time that we remember who we are as free men and
women of a country that values individual liberty above all other political
ends. And it is time that we remind our
elected officials, and every single
government employee, who they are: they
are the temporary guardians of our liberty. They are in the very fragile
position of power that we have lent to them.
They derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed.
Constraining government power and championing individual liberty is how we
bring out the best in each other. This is how we allow for the greatest degree
and effectiveness of personal compassion and kindness - and the greatest degree
of personal responsibility and accountability.
We call ourselves Conservatives. We call ourselves Libertarians. We call
ourselves Constitutionalists. But beneath all of this we are something much
more fundamental:
We are Abolitionists.
And we do not compromise with the evils of slavery.
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