 October 13, 2000Volume 2, Number 2
Political Power & Activism: Re-Evaluating the Wizard
Here's an attempt to illustrate the commonly acknowledged political spectrum:
From communism to fascism, all of these positions have something in common:
They are all statist.
Statism, or the belief in political power, has become America's national religion.
Individual viewpoints often involve elements of more than one of these positions. Even those who claim strict liberalism or strict conservatism will have some exceptions within those views. The point is that from right to left or left to right, all of the statist positions include the idea of encroaching on your liberty. They disagree only in the details.
Generally speaking, the left-of-center positions are for freedom in social matters but strict economic regulation. They wish to eliminate inequality of wealth (or economic 'defects'). Right-of-center positions want to use force to stamp out sin (social 'defects') while espousing freedom in economic matters. ( Fascism is different in that it wants only what is expedient for the moment. )The middle-ground, or moderate view, borrows from both ends and wants close regulation of both economic and social matters.
Economic encroachmentEconomic encroachmentEconomic freedom
Social freedomSocial encroachmentSocial encroachment
--- If one values liberty, what option does one have in all of this? ---
There is another viewpoint that shares one element from each end of this spectrum but is unique. It cannot show up on a statist political spectrum because it rejects all encroachments and embraces LIBERTY.
Economic Liberty
Social Liberty
Some have called this view juris naturalism, or the belief in natural law:
Do all you have agreed to do
Do not encroach upon the persons or property of others
The principles themselves are sound. Practiced as liberty by individuals they work fine, but in attempting to marry them to the force of civil government...
...something has obviously gone wrong!
Political power: The characteristic that sets government apart from all other
institutions. The privilege of using force on persons who
have not harmed anyone.
-- Richard J. Maybury
|
We are currently saddled with the most destructive (and expensive) government ever seen upon the face of the earth. The united States of America are at least well on the way down the slippery slope to fascism, if not there already. We are faced with some difficult questions, and there is much debate over possible solutions.
There are those who believe that the answers lie in the direction of the use of more political power (force) to solve our problems. I wish them no harm, but hardly see how they can avoid it. They are determined that men shall rule other men by force and that means that they shall be so ruled as well.
I would prefer to live in a world of voluntary and private association and self-government. Yes, there are risks involved in that, as in anything else. Would those risks not be an improvement over the complete tyranny and/or self-destruction now facing us?
All is not well here in Oz. Wizards are mere masters of deception through illusion when left to their own devices. When allowed political power they become very dangerous.
|
|
HomeSchooling TEXAS, est. 1995
ubi libertas habitat, ibi nostra patria est
WHERE LIBERTY DWELLS, THERE IS MY COUNTRY
|