Thursday, March 06, 2008

Liberty and Freedom Require a Moral Citizenry

But the Left and Democratic Party are Actively Screwing It Up

One of the greatest losses in today's culture has been the decline in basic, or practical morality. In a society based on liberty and freedom, trust is a mandatory element. I'm trusting you to be ethical and honest and you are doing the same towards me. Truth is the basic and necessary requirement of a civil society that cherishes freedom and liberty. Truth is the foundation of trust, because without truth, the creation of trust is impossible. In philosophical terms of 'ends and means', we can state: Truth is the means to achieve the ends of a civil society based on maximizing personal liberty and freedom. To live in that free society, citizens are individually responsible for regulating their morality. A lack of basic morality creates the need for more outside regulation. Outside regulation, by its very nature, places limits upon personal freedom. Personal morality means less government interference and control.

The Left, like every totalitarian regime before it, has issued a two-front war on morality that works in tandem to actually endanger personal liberty. The first front denies the need for morality by confusing freedom with hedonism. The second method is to deny the existence of morality under the argument there is no God and morality falls under the auspices of religion. Religion is then opposed under the misunderstood "separation of church and state".

Hedonism teaches that happiness or pleasure is the sole or chief good in life. Those of us that survived the 1960's Cultural Revolution remember the hedonistic motto, "If it feels good, do it!" However, the fact that such a life actually leads to a self-imposed limitation on personal freedom is not given proper consideration. Examination of the break-down of the family due to following the revolutionary creed resulted in more than one generation of children virtually raising themselves. The continuity of generations of parental instruction became fractured. The pursuit of hedonism results in every sort of behavior that has proven detrimental for individuals, families and especially so for the children born into the self-inflicted social turmoil. Such a community creates alienated individuals. Alienated people are easy to control and become prey for those who seek power for power's sake.

The Left through the Democratic Party and numerous front groups have deftly manuevered many citizens into a trap by presenting hedonism as if it were the ultimate choice representing personal liberty. Note that for every vice there is an "addiction" factor making the addict a victim to be rescued by the "caring" Left. There is a government investigation and program created for every hedonistic vice we could possibly create. It is clearly apparent from the checkout line tabloids that sex, food, alcohol, smoking, gambling, drugs and anything else hedonism offers can become a prison, both metaphorically and in reality. Even the desire to live off the largess of others leads straight to the self-induced imprisonment of poverty and destitution.

Note how the Left today rushes in to "save" us from our hedonistic pleasures with laws to prevent smoking, to eliminate our debt on maxed out credit cards and home mortgages, or even overeating. But isn't it a bit much that the people that encourage hedonistic behavior should now comfort us by telling us that nothing is our own fault and offer yet another government program to save us from ourselves? The real evil is the truth behind the Left's pronouncement that you have been victimized. The dark truth is that it was they who did the initial victimizing. Considering these thoughts, we can only conclude the Left pushes hedonism as a substitute for personal liberty, because broken people are powerless and easy to control. How sweet a deal is that when we look to our personal destroyers as our benevolent protector? The victimized readily reward Democratic Congressman, national and state, by voting them to rule over us year after year.


We must accept the fact that to embrace hedonism as a liberating choice is to despise your Creator-endowed personal liberty. To be truly free requires us to be in charge of our own destiny. The key to personal liberty and freedom is self-control. My plea to young people: Do not accept the Left's lie that hedonism is an equal substitute for liberty. Baby-making, drug use, or just general apathy about life is like tying your shoelaces together before your Olympic sprint. The term "stupid" comes readily to mind. The commercial plea for donations says, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", but a community can not prevent her youth from wasting their own minds. Wise up. Freedom is not free.

The second front the Left employs seeks to deny the existence of God and the Judeo-Christian creed. The idea here is that if God doesn't exist, then neither does morality. By connecting morality to religion, the Left is able to deny even the existence of practical morality, or what we used to call good citizenship. Good citizenship was based upon truth and honesty. The Bible teaches truth and honesty, because God Himself is true and honest and requires the same from those that desire relationship with Him.

But the Left teaches there is no God, no Creator, no Ten Commandments. Instead of transcendent truth, the Left's moral slogan is: "If you can get away with it, then the means justify the ends." which is nothing more than a call for social anarchy. The Left is paving the way to making lying and deceit normal activity. The Left declares that if lying, deceit and whatever other dishonest activity will get you what and where you want to be without being caught or sent to prison, then go for it. An absence of practical morality makes the community a scary place to live. Everything is potentially a lie, a front, a scam or even cause of death. This kind of community also keeps people alienated from others because too often we find we can't even trust our friends to be honest and trustworthy. So, once again the Left has deliberately created a social problem so they can rush in and "save" us from those that deal dishonestly and corruptly. But, the dark thought that the Left and the Democratic Party were the source of the confusion should niggle in your brain.

Therefore, to think the actual source of the problem can be your salvation is through common logic, a blatant and malicious lie. Remember that those in political power achieved their status through the same motto they preach: "If lying, deceit, and whatever other dishonest activity will get you what and where you want to be without being caught or sent to prison, then go for it." “If there is no God, then everything is permissible. ..., as the fateful quote goes in Dostoyevsky's The Brother's Karamazov. Imagine the horror such a community would become if we acted on every evil and deceitful thought that came into our minds. Then realize the Left's approval of such groups as NAMBLA should forever ban any idea the Democratic Party might present as to how to better run this nation or community. It is completely absurd to think a bent ideology has anything positive to offer.

That the Left holds themselves as Messiahs of hope, when the reality is their ideas are diabolically corrupted and deceitful is evidence of a complete mental break with reality. Besides, how can there be a Messiah, a Son of God, a Saviour, if there is no God? There can be no Son without a Father. The Left preaches "hope", but tell you the nation is broken. They promise a "new" freedom, but use government to restrict freedom. They offer help, but that help comes at the expense of not just your personal liberty and freedom, but your very well-being. And even more perversely and deadly, when it comes to national security, the Left practices an abberation of Christian teaching, by loving our enemies more than they love us. Or even worse loving money more than our security.

In conclusion, it should be obvious that to believe the current Democratic Party offers anything other than tyranny and oppression is to be clinically deranged.

8 comments:

Jewish Odysseus said...

My brilliant jackaloping amiga...

You may have read that liberalism, as we all have known for years in our hearts, has been OFFICIALLY DEFINED a very nasty form of mental illness. By a scholar/psychologist, no less:

http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Mind-Psychological-Political-Madness/dp/097795630X

Nancy, this struggle has undergone a tricky evolution. First, liberals claimed liberalism was superior. (1932-1976) Then, that non-liberalism was inferior (1976-1992) Then, THEY DENIED THEY WERE REALLY LIBERAL. (1992-2007) Now, they are basically denying that liberalism exists, so OF COURSE they cannot be called liberals.

OK, Hill and Barry, you're not "liberals"--you're just pathologically lying violent power-hungry sociopaths. Feel better now?

Anonymous said...

I like the post! It gives me some good stuff to disagree with.

First, on the point that the Left makes victims in order to save them. I think this misses the order of victimization. In my opinion, victimization is a way of interacting with the world that originates with the victim.

A victim is someone who makes the problems of their lives the basis of their relationships with others. Advances in relationships with the outside world are made through pleas for help, but it is a vicious circle because if the victim's problem is solved, then the victim's connection to the outside world is severed.

In victim psychology, it pays to self-sabotage, even while accepting and pleaing for the help of others. Victims who belong to the Left plea to the government for help. Victims who belong to the Right plea to other entities for help. This reflects the forum in which the public lives of members of the Left and members of the Left play out, but it does not suggest that the government MAKES victims of the members of the left.

Now, as for morality. Members of the Left believe ethical principles should flow from the government and they believe in freedom of the motto "If you can get away with it, go for it." This is true. But that motto is not the gateway to victimization. If you end up a victim due to your actions, you didn't really get away with them, did you?

To sum up: Victims aren't good for themselves or those who try to help them. By extension: victims who look to the Left aren't good for themselves or the government of the nation.

But, it is not the Left that perpetuates this. It is the Left-leaning victims themselves. It is not those who cease to believe in God that become victims, it is those who misunderstand what they can get away with. Again, the problem originates in the victims, not the Left.

This is my opinion at any rate.

Blame the victims, not the Left.

Nancy Coppock said...

TS,

You are thinking well as a good self-supporting citizen should. However, to understand the deceit of the Left you have to twist your mind around backwards. One only has to check the phone book to see the multitude of government services created to "help" victims. Such services require victims - in fact more victims means job security in this twisted world.

I would recommend Thomas Sowell's book, Vision of the Anointed as a further text in understanding the Left's predatory tendencies. It's an eye opening read. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Hi Nancy,

Not sure quite where to put this request, but here will do as well as anywhere.

I need another opinion. I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged and I can't help but imagine from your viewpoints that you are familiar with Ayn Rand.

In Atlas Shrugged, Rand outlines the inudstrialization of transportation and the progression from laissez-faire capitalism to a socialism that eventually destroys the mechanisms which make the industrialization of transportation possible.

I turned to Atlas Shrugged because I am struggling with how best to deal with the problem of the environment. It seems to me that the major issue of today is the indstrialization of food production. Now, whereas railroads required proper maintenence in order for the industrialization of transport to function, the environment seems to require proper maintanence in order for the indstrialiazation of food production to function.

And yet, for all that, exactly the sort of transformation into a state of constant emergency and the looting of the industrial food production sector seems to be taking place these days.

The one aspect of Atlas Shrugged with which I disagree most is the possibility of the sort of solution posed by John Galt. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to follow that an effective industrialist is necessarily the decent sort of human being depicted in Rand's work.

If government intervention doesn't work to stop the looters (in fact, only expedites the process), and the solution by John Galt is only weak idealism impractical in the real world, what solution is left?

I guess I don't expect you to have the answer to that, but thought I would check, just in case! I seem to be at a bit of an impasse myself in my thinking on the matter.

Anonymous said...

oops! My comment was meant to be left by Tequila Socrates!

Nancy Coppock said...

Dear A,

Interesting questions you pose. Reading Rand does get the mind to thinking. Congratulations go to you for finishing such a large work in this post-it-note sized world.

You questions about food production are very interesting. Once again free market capitalism is the answer. Many people are concerned about the methods used to produce our food - hormones, sloven cost-cutting production methods, etc.

What has the free market brought into the field? Organic production methods, farmer's markets, natural food stores like Whole Foods. The market is wide open for concerned people to produce products, distribute, and then sell a better food product.

Just as in the Judeo/Christian morality creed, the letter of the law leads to death as we are all found lacking in righteousness, the letter of government law leads to death also because some companies sink to barely meeting the letter of the law rather than producing a superior product. These companies end up receiving government assistance to stay in business rather than being allowed to fail due to consumer choice.

Free market capitalism requires a morality that keeps companies striving to properly serve their customers or they fail. Customers will not return to buy a replacement shoddy but cheap product. Customers will search to find value as to both price and product reliability.

Gov't intervention can be good under the direction of moral men, but power, corruption, and the law of human nature leads most intervention to be detrimental to the citizens they tax.

I hope this has given you some food for thought. I would recommend Henry Hazlitt's "The Foundations of Morality" a moral foundation for Capitalism.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Sincerely,
Nancy Coppock

Anonymous said...

Hi Nancy,

Thanks, it is indeed food for thought. I am a little down on the organic sector seems to be non-competitive.

For one, getting labeled as an organic producer is so difficult and requires a great deal of interaction with the government. Also, unfortunate as it may be, without that label, consumers are unable to discern which products are organic and which are not. Frustrating.

Also, organic methods themselves are inefficient compared with standard commercial methods. There is currently no possible way for the entire country to survive on organics, much less the world.

It seems to me that government intervention, not the free-market, brought about the rise of the organic/natural food sector.

Farmer's markets are an interesting phenomenon. I don't know how to feel about them, quite. In many ways, it seems that they are a return to something we left behind in favor of the current economic system, but perhaps a reversion is what we need. That would place the onus on the culture (morality?) to make a space for farmer's markets on a massive scale....

...sorry... still musing on this one.... thougtht I would give you a glimpse into my thoughts.

Free market capitalism somehow doesn't seem capable of solving environmental problems, but I agree with your analysis of government intervention.

Morality is an interesting answer to the question I posed to you. I will definitely try to check out the book you recomend next time I get to a bookstore that sells English books!

Thanks for your response!

Nancy Coppock said...

T.S.

I visited your site and understand exactly the "English" bookstore note as my husband and I lived in Hong Kong for a bit. One time I bought Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" because it was a huge book and therefore would take time. The problem was the story was so engaging that I couldn't put it down and indulged in reading it voraciously. ha!

I can tell you are really pondering the food production business in regards to free market principles. One of the things we forget to think about is ourselves as individuals with choice.

We forget the power of the American experience that was designed to allow the individual the freedom to pursue his own way. My 80 year old mother has a 12x12 ft. square in her backyard that supplies us with tomatoes, peppers, onions, greens and okra. These are just the plants she choses and she produces enough for herself and friends.

She was raised on a farm and she has always done this. When my father was alive, he tended his own beehive and on "honey" day the kitchen was covered in the golden nectar. What fun we had!

Granted we still go the grocery store or produce stand to get a full variety of food. However, this is why freedom requires a standardized morality - a lie, is a lie - the truth, is the truth.

I live near Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, better known as Texas A&M. We don't really think about the words abbreviated. I know that over at that university they are studying to find the answer to all your questions and concerns. I am amazed to learn the vast variety of studies going on at A&M. I wish I was young and just beginning my life.

No free market business wants to kill or harm their customer. It doesn't make business sense. I still believe that government intervention confuses both the sense of businessmen and morality by offering tax money to their buddies and then excusing bad behavior through confusing laws. Evil behavior thrives in confusion.

In the Judeo/Christian philosophy, the law brings death because we are guilty of breaking every law of God. Especially when considering the intentions of our heart. Human nature dictates that we are all capable of behaving badly. This is why redemption is a necessity.

Since we have just experienced Easter, I should point out how it was necessary for the perfect sacrifice to be a form of God Himself. Anything we could offer is flawed, even if we were to offer ourselves. Nothing flawed could provide redemption for our flawed nature.

I believe honoring that event and accepting it for our own redemption gives us the humbleness to keep our human nature under control. Not perfectly, because we aren't capable. But the notion that there is a power greater than ourselves; that knows our inner heart, keeps us moral better than any law.

Self control allows freedom and liberty in abundance.