Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny
As the election draws ever closer it is becoming quite evident We the People are destined to get another screwing no matter which candidate prevails. I find myself just shaking my head and acknowledging the battle for liberties lost and ever again realizing the full natural rights of man is now but a fading and ever more distant dream of what once was.
We have slowly and willingly allowed the forces that propelled us to achieve greatness as a people and nation to be turned into a force that will ultimately destroy us. Witnessing the forces at work that have torn, and continue to tear at the philosophical principles this nation was founded on I no longer have the stamina or desire to describe that which should be clear to all. So I will allow another to say it. And say it with clarity, accuracy, and boldness...
Man's Rights - If one wishes to advocate a free society-that is, capitalism-one must realize that its indispensable foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights, one must realize that capitalism is the only system that can uphold and protect them. And if one wishes to gauge the relationship of freedom to the goals of today's intellectuals, one must gauge it by the fact that the concept of individual rights is evaded, distorted, perverted, and seldom discussed, most conspicuously by the so-called "conservatives."
"Rights" are a moral concept- the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individuals actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others- the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social-context-the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of of a society, between ethics and poliics. Individual rights arev the means of subordinating society to moral law.
Every political system is based on some code of ethics. The dominate ethics of mankind's history were variants of the altruist-collectivist doctrine which subordinated the individual to some higher authority, either mystical or social. Consequently, most political systems were variants of the same statist tyranny, differing only in degree, not in basic principle, limited only by the accident of tradition, of chaos, of bloody strife and periodic collapse. Under all such systems, morality was a code applicable to the individual, but not to society. Society was placed outside the moral law, as its embodiment or source or exclusive interpreter-and the inculcation of self-sacrificial devotions to social duty was regarded as the main purpose of ethics in man's earthly existence.
Since there is no such entity as "society," since society is only a number of individual men, this meant, in practice, that the rulers of society were exempt from moral law; subject only to the traditional rituals, they held total power and extracted blind obedience-on the implicit principal of: "The good is that which is good for society (or for the tribe, the race, the nation), and the ruler's edicts are its voice on earth."
This was true of of all statist systems, under all variants of the altruist-collectivist ethics, mystical or social. "The Divine Rights of Kings" summarizes the political theory of the first- "Vox populi, vox dei", of the second. As witness: the theocracy of Egypt, with the Pharaohs as an embodied God-the unlimited majority rule or democracy of Athens- the welfare state run by the Emperors of Rome- the Inquisition of the late Middle Ages-the absolute monarchy of France-the welfare state of Bismarck's Prussia-the gas chambers of of Nazi Germany- the slaughterhouses of the Soviet Union.
All these political systems were expressions of the altruist-collectivist ethics-and their common characteristic is the fact that society stood above the moral law, as an omnipotent, sovereign whim worshiper. Thus, politically, all these systems were variants of an amoral society.
The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law. {Emphasis mine}
Profound truths. However, until such time as the educational system, the business community, our corrupt politicians, and the general electorate understands these moral and ethical principles, and begins to respect and practice them this nation will continue it's reactionary slide back to the tyrannical past from which it initially rebelled.
Sadly, neither major political party and by extension neither candidate has a clue. At this point in the game I wonder how many Americans really have a clue any longer as well.
For more information on the above quoted work please visit here.
