Can we again draw a lesson from France?
Absent a CLEAR, UNAMBIGUOUS understanding of the Law’s just purpose; a yardstick against which people can measure their government’s every act, those entrusted with the force of law will naturally advance their own authority. A “ruling class” will replace “civil service” and will eventually assume the right to engineer the economy and society in general.
The purpose of government is not a “quantitative” question nor is it a subjective one.
Either government’s purpose is to SERVE society through the EQUAL defense of each person’s NATURAL rights, OR it is a RULER with the authority to “run” society according to its own objectives.
Consider the NATURE of Government:
Government is force of law. Legislating, enforcing and adjudicating the LAW is the entirety of government which is why its only just (or competent) use is to defend the natural rights of each person. EVERY other use puts government on a path of tyranny (and ineptitude) rather than service to human society.
As Americans, we must RE-learn to combat the incremental tyranny of unauthorized government control with a QUALITATIVE answer to the question of government’s only JUST PURPOSE:
The EQUAL defense of each person’s natural liberty.
The political left has learned to utilize incrementalism, knowing that the advance of gov’t control over society is more likely to be questioned in (ineffective) QUANTITATIVE terms when approached this way:
• “How much social engineering will we tolerate?”
• “How much can our rulers use the tax-code to manipulate our choice of profession, commute, or lifestyle?”
• “How far can they go in controlling our words, our thoughts, our beliefs?”
Laws controlling speech (except that which actually incites violence) compelling interaction, creating favored classes, engineering social or economic outcomes ARE ACTS OF SUBJUGATION.
Taxation for the purpose of controlling behavior rather than funding authorized functions of government surely is as an act of SUBJUGATION.
By accepting the more modest deployments of subjugating force, the “ruling class” wins our implied subscription to this completely UNAMERICAN definition of Government’s purpose, thus offering ‘license’ to expand its control further:
“We accept our rulers in government as the rightful owners of the wealth we create and the lawful stewards of our society. Therefore, they have a right to “punish” our economic and consumer choices when they fail to comport to the rulers’ agenda.”
We either assert our inherently human rights to own our lives and CONTAIN our government to its just purpose or we yield it. It is a qualitative, not a quantitative question. So there isn’t a middle ground.
America’s Constitution established a governmental system based on God-given insights:
1. That each PERSON owns his/her own life; a sacred gift from God that takes the form of human consciousness, personal faculties, a capacity for envisioning and realizing a course in life.
2. That SOCIETY consists of the INTERDEPENDENT alignment and exchange that occurs NATURALLY between people who are subscribed to a notion of EQUALITY under LAW.
3. That the PURPOSE of GOVERNMENT is to defend the equal natural liberty of each person against abuse by fraud, theft, coercion, force or invasion.
4. That when people are FREE and SECURE in their dealings with each other as EQUALS under LAW, they can safely engage in vibrant economic exchange. This leads to prosperity and allows for the specialization on which progress relies.
The magnificent flourishing of American society is a direct result of having codified the EQUALITY of each person’s natural rights; in particular, property rights which form the foundation of economic liberty.
We’ve allowed shameful erosion to the foundations of our Liberty. Incremental, semantical, conceptual degradation – some of it very purposeful – has eroded common understanding and subscription to the fundamental principles on which our nation was constituted and on which national identity rely.
Perhaps the repetition of tragic experience our French allies are again suffering can provide a much-needed wake-up call to today’s Americans.
A big part of the solution rests in RESTORED SUBSCRIPTION to the essential definition of government’s sole and just purpose:
The PURPOSE of the LAW (Government) and the MEASURE of its justice is the EQUAL defense of each person’s natural liberty.
Only in this capacity can FORCE be of service to society. In every other capacity, government assumes ownership of society; quickly becoming a tyrannical ruler.
We know this instinctively.
The just purpose of force as a DEFENDER of human liberty is in our Declaration and underlies our Constitution.
Today we have vivid examples in places all over the world reminding us of what awaits complacent people who forget the hard won lessons of history.