SEPARATING GOVERNMENT AND BELIEF DOES NOT WORK
In his essays on the PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT
(http://www.joelskousen.com/Philosophy/philosophy.html), Joel Skousen says: “Today, we have a new state religion in America--that of atheism and evolution.”
“All forms of education have values (even science) and those values should always be competing--never monopolized by majorities lest the minority’s property rights be violated. The only way to accomplish this is complete separation of schools and state.”
“If any majority has the power to impose community standards upon others, then surely the day will come when Christians will lose the majority and be forced to become subject to the values of a new majority, hostile to religion. The only safe way to run a government is to make sure that no majority has the power to enforce moral values on others--except in the area of violations of fundamental rights.”.
“Officials should not, in an official capacity, publicly disparage the beliefs of others, unless those beliefs violate fundamental rights.”
“Again, the criteria for official criticism of a belief system must be strictly limited to acts or intentions that violate or present an imminent threat to fundamental rights--not mere dislike or disagreement for the belief system that is otherwise voluntary.”
As a result of this reasoning, Skousen concludes that government should stay out of the realm of beliefs and values. Government should not promote any belief system or any value system. “Those values should always be competing.”. If government supported any belief or any value, using government money, that would be a violation of the property rights of those who do not believe in those beliefs or values and do not wish to support them.
However, he says this applies “except in the area of violations of fundamental rights”. This is a very large exception.
LIBERTY IS A BELIEF SYSTEM AND A VALUE SYSTEM
This is a very great error.
Liberty is a belief system. Liberty is a value system. The beliefs and values of Liberty need to be promoted vigorously and worldwide.
We are going to have a fancy legal system to enforce Liberty. We are going to make all citizens sign a contract agreeing to defend and protect Liberty. We are going to be ready to go to war if anyone seriously threatens our Liberty. But we are not going to talk about Liberty? We are not going to say that Liberty is a good thing? And why it is a good thing?
The entire population has been massively brainwashed to be “benefit-corrupted”, to believe in Socialism, Communism, welfare, and steal-from-the-rich. By some miracle we hope to reverse all this and establish a government truly dedicated to Liberty. But we are not going to let that government promote the ideas on which Liberty is based? We are going to leave ideas in the realm of competition? Skousen says “Values should always be competing.”.
We got into this mess by allowing enemy propaganda to flourish with no challenge. The enemies of Liberty are extremely rich and powerful. Both the Conspiracy and Communism. They have blanketed the world for many decades, and even centuries, with a thick inescapable carpet of propaganda for Communism, Socialism, collectivism, poor-people-are-victims, rich-people-are-evil, the-government-will-take-care-of-you, and so forth. And Lovers of Liberty have been quiet, humble, and mousy. How stupid! How wrong! How evil!
In the area of foreign policy, Skousen similarly says that no financial or military aid should be given by the government to any cause of Liberty in the world, unless there is an imminent physical threat to our own country. Wrong again! Extremely wrong! The prime example of this is when George Marshall refused to send military aid to Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese in 1949, thereby giving China to the Communists. What a tiny expense it would have been! What a great benefit to the world it would have been! What a nightmare the loss of China has become!
DEFINITION OF “LIBERTY”
In my “LAWS OF POLITICS” (http://www.lawsofpolitics.com/), I say, “20. Liberty is the right to believe, to think, to speak, and to act, as you choose, without any force or any orders compelling you to act or forbidding you to act in any specific way.”
“21. Liberty is the supreme value in politics.”
“39. Liberty does not include the right to destroy liberty.”
“40. Freedom of religion does not extend to any religion which advocates the death, conquest, or enslavement of unbelievers.”
“54. It is not enough for a government to enforce liberty within its own territory. Liberty must be strongly and vigorously promoted for all men everywhere. Otherwise evil men seeking to conquer and to enslave will win, and liberty will be lost.”
“55. Therefore the proper purpose of government includes the strong and vigorous promotion of liberty for all men everywhere.”
If benefit-corruption – the tendency of people to vote themselves government money – is allowed to run rampant, then Liberty will be destroyed. Therefore, is it not the proper function of a government of Liberty to do all possible to persuade and to teach people that this is a bad thing? And why it is a bad thing? Is this not a belief? Is this not a value?
Universities are filled with professors teaching Keynesian economics – the wonderful glories of enormous government debt. Keynesian economics was created by the Conspiracy to destroy Liberty. Therefore, is it not the proper function of government to teach its people that debt is a bad thing, and that saving and building up reserves is a good thing?
Islam plainly and openly and loudly advocates the death, conquest, and enslavement of unbelievers. Therefore no government of Liberty should allow Islam to exist. It is an openly subversive and totalitarian group. Moreover, Islam is a great enemy of Liberty in the world. Therefore a government of Liberty should be very interested in combating Islam in the world. How? By bombing defenseless Muslims, as is the fashion now? No! By talking! By promoting Liberty as a different way of life and a better way of life.
If we are willing to shoot people to defend our Liberty, then we should certainly be willing to talk to people to defend our Liberty. And if government has the right to shoot people to defend our Liberty, then government should certainly have the right to talk to people to defend our Liberty.
A passive approach to letting the rest of the world suffer in slavery is not only bad for our own Liberty and survival, it is morally and ethically wrong. It is a refusal to help our neighbors who are in trouble.
LIBERTY DEPENDS ON TRUE BELIEFS AND TRUE VALUES
Skousen is trying to establish a legal system which will defend Liberty against the shortsightedness, self-centeredness, and corruption of men. His work is extremely valuable and instructive. Basically, he wants his legal structure of Liberty to be able to survive even though most people are against it.
-
Whether this is actually an attainable goal is highly questionable. Can a free society survive if the population contains no people who understand and love Liberty?
Furthermore, if we assume that the population has no Lovers of Liberty in it, how do we expect to bring about a free society which applies these legal principles?
It is a common idea, and very true, that the survival of Liberty depends enormously on the quality of the people.
Noah Webster said, “No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”.
Thomas Jefferson said, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? . . . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” This is quite a pessimistic statement. Not only must the people be high-spirited enough to be willing to shed their blood for the sake of Liberty, they must actually do so “from time to time”. If this is true, then it is not possible to establish a government which will preserve Liberty without repeated revolution to overthrow the inevitable decline into tyranny.
A large part of the process of destroying Liberty in America is the process of degrading the population. This is being done by destroying effective education. This is being done by massively drugging the population with drugs both legal and illegal. This is being done by massive illegal immigration. And in many other ways.
Well written principles and constitutions and laws can be very valuable. But the preservation of Liberty depends very heavily on reversing the degradation of the population. And similarly, the process of bringing Liberty to the rest of the world involves improving their spiritual condition by bringing them literacy and education and civilization and by teaching them to live by true principles of right living. Teaching them Marxist doctrines of violence and revenge only pushes them farther into slavery and suffering. That is what the enemy has been doing with great success for a long time. It is no wonder that the world is collapsing into chaos, war, and slavery. The remedy is for us to teach the world the beliefs and the values of Liberty, and to do so energetically and urgently.
This has everything to do with pushing out truth and ethics. True beliefs and true values must be taught to everyone, both internally and around the world.
Propaganda is more important than force. To declare that the government is not allowed to teach true beliefs and true values is to give up the war before it starts. We might as well lay down our weapons and let the invader slaughter us and enslave our children.
We need leaders holding high government office who are true and honest Lovers of Liberty and who will do all possible to enforce Liberty internally and to promote Liberty worldwide.
Love of Liberty is a spiritual thing. Liberty cannot be defended with only the mechanics of law. It needs a population which cares about truth and justice. It needs leaders who are passionate Lovers of Liberty. And it needs those passionate Lovers of Liberty to get into power in the government so that the government can then do the right thing because good men are in power.
If we can agree on the principles of Liberty, then we can agree on the beliefs and the values which underlie and which constitute Liberty. If the government can legislate and fight to defend those principles, then the government can persuade and teach to promote those beliefs and those values. If we can shoot in support of Liberty, then we can talk in support of Liberty. Why use bullets, when we can use words?
Skousen is trying very hard to limit the power of government so that evil men cannot enslave us through government. But government must not be so limited that when good men come to power, they can do nothing. They must be allowed, and in fact commanded, to vigorously promote Liberty with words, and, if really needed, with military action.
* * * * * * *
Comments