Monday, March 14, 2016

Libertarian Vignette

Most people of any political stripe take their view because they feel it looks in the direction of utopia. From the extreme right of fascism to the extreme left of communism (This popular spectrum, by the way, is misleading, since a person's rights are almost identically trampled on by a nationalist's jack-boot as by a socialist's sandal. It is not so much a spectrum as it is a circle, with authoritarianism having the force of gravity, and drawing everything continually, inexorably down to 6 o'clock.), people form their opinions as to which form of government is best because of the results they expect, or claim to have already observed.
  I take my view not because I have any utopian expectations or even any real conviction that my ways will make things better (at least as we think of better) but because I think my ways are right. I make no claims or guarantees that my ideas will lead us shortly out of this mess and into order.  It should be obvious, in fact, that with my insistence upon leaving more things to individual choice, combined with my view that human nature is fallen, that the individual will not always, or even most of the time, make the right choice. My views are not the results of surveys and studies that indicate that if people are trusted more they will rise to the occasion. My view is not result based. If some well-meaning leftist were to ask me "But does your idea work?", my ready response would be, "Frankly, my dear........."  If they were to ask "Will the individual make the right choice?", my response would be, "What business is it of mine, or, more to point, yours?"
Now, I think that giving people more freedom is the right thing to do, and although I don't believe that gives any promise that things will all work out, doing the right thing is the best we can do. And, since I believe in an active, involved Creator, I believe that doing the best we can do gives us a right to expect better results,
or at least be able to blame God when we don't get better results.

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