760 Marriage licenses serve positive purposes (underage, close relations, disease issues, etc.). Elimination of the church is to remove the authority of the marriage sacrament—a serious and sacred commitment for life—and replacing it with a ticket to be intimate without disdain from the public. One day it will become a tool of “out of sight, out of mind.”
761 For example, see Respect for Marriage Act, H.R. 1116, S. 598 (2011); polygamy, see The U.N. Refugee Agency, Refworld, Polygamy.
762 The U.N. Human Rights Council, Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, June 14, 2011.
763 Arnand Grover, Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, U.N., A/66/254, August 3, 2011; Sarah Boseley, U.N. States Told They Must Legalize Abortion, The Guardian, October 24, 2011.
764 For example, U.N. Agenda 21, www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21, 1992 and 2002; U.N. Population Division Policy, March 2009; World Population Report, Facing a Changing World: Women Population and Climate,” 2009.
765 For example, Jeremiah Wright, expounder of inflammatory rhetoric, ABC News, Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11, March 13, 2008.
766 For example, Diana B. Henriques, Religion-based Tax Breaks: Housing to Paychecks to Books, The New York Times, October 11, 2006; Proposed by Bipartisan Policy Center, Restoring America’s Future, November 17, 2010.
767 In 2012, Sweden completed major steps toward a cashless economy, leading the world toward electronic payments for everything from bus rides to church donations. See Associated Press, Sweden moving toward cashless economy,” March 18, 2012.
768 United Nations World Health Organization, About Who, 2012.
769 See the United Nations Charter; Articles 92-96; Article 93 makes all 193 U.N. members ipso facto (automatic) parties to the statute of the World Court.
770 The U.N. Environment Programme is already in place to “provide leadership ...”
771 See the United Nations World Trade Organization; Earth Day; International Mother Earth Day.
772 See U.N. Environment Programme, and World Conservation Monitoring Centre for blame on the “industrial age” for pollution, over harvesting, and climate change.
773 Associated Press, U.S. Weighing Options for Future Cuts in Nuclear Weapons, Including 80 percent Reduction, February 14, 2012.
774 Israel Today, U.N. to Israel: Surrender, March 30, 2011.
775 Jennifer O’Connor, The Case Forever Known as Tilikum vs. SeaWorld, The PETA files, the official blog, February 9, 2012.
776 See footnote 623 on page 431, “Communist Goal”; Rosalyn McKeown, et al, Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit, July 2002.
777 U.N., ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, June 10, 2008.
Chapter 92: The Proper Role of Government
The proper role of government is to protect unalienable rights and clear the way for people to prosper without violating those rights.
As illustrated in the previous chapters, governments throughout history have routinely followed the same patterns of usurpation to gain power over the masses. There appears a broad spectrum of assorted beginning places, but their ultimate ending places were and are, more or less, all the same. Each power has enthroned itself according to the seven pillars of socialism—and at the terrible expense of failing to protect the natural rights of its individual citizens.
When the U.S. Constitution was discussed and debated, its very design and purpose was to abolish that ages-old abuse of natural rights. It created watchmen that were built right into its very fabric—a clearly-defined set of checks and balances—to jealously guard the actions of all handlers of government power. That structure of self-correcting tensions and counterbalancing forces was almost universal (the Judiciary was not checked) in its application across all national, cultural, and racial boundaries. All that it required to function was a minimal level of personal and national virtue.
As Franklin said, “As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” When it comes to freedom, virtue is everything.
Because of corruption, neglect, and a constant chipping away at its foundations, the Constitution has lost much of its moral authority to guide America’s affairs—not just by the letter of the law, but the spirit as well.
For America, and for the world at large, to regain control over run-away governments, there needs to be a clear, common starting place. The following is a good one to consider—
In 1968, Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture under President Dwight Eisenhower, gave a speech outlining the proper role of government. Each point of his message was a sermon by itself, and the very antithesis of all that socialism strives to do.
1.Founded on God: “I believe that no people can maintain freedom unless their political institutions are founded upon faith in God and belief in the existence of moral law.”
2.Rights: “I believe that God has endowed men with certain unalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and that no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these; that the sole function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property and anything more than this is usurpation and oppression.”
3.Law is Supreme: “I believe that the Constitution of the United States was prepared and adopted by men acting under inspiration from Almighty God; that it is a solemn compact between the peoples of the States of this nation which all officers of government are under duty to obey; that the eternal moral laws expressed therein must be adhered to or individual liberty will perish.”
4.Responsibilities: “I believe it a violation of the Constitution for government to deprive the individual of either life, liberty, or property except for these purposes:
“Punish crime and provide for the administration of justice;
“Protect the right and control of private property;
“Wage defensive war and provide for the nation’s defense;
“Compel each one who enjoys the protection of government to bear his fair share of the burden of performing the above functions.”
5.Can’t Delegate False Rights: “I hold that the Constitution denies government the power to take from the individual either his life, liberty, or property except in accordance with moral law; that the same moral law which governs the actions of men when acting alone is also applicable when they act in concert with others; that no citizen or group of citizens has any right to direct their agent, the government to perform any act which would be evil or offensive to the conscience if that citizen were performing the act himself outside the framework of government.”
6.Religion, Arms, Property: “I am hereby resolved that under no circumstances shall the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights be infringed. In particular I am opposed to any attempt on the part of the federal Government to deny the people their right to bear arms, to worship and pray when and where they choose, or to own and control private property.”
7.Legally Anti-Communist: “I consider ourselves at war with international Communism which is committed to the destruction of our government, our right of property, and our freedom; that it is treason as defined by the Constitution to give aid and comfort to this implac-able enemy.”
8. Legally Anti-Socialism: “I am unalterably opposed to Socialism, either in whole or in part, and regard it as an unconstitutional usurpation of power and a denial of the right of private property for government to own or operate the means of producing and distributing goods and services in competition with private enterprise, or to regiment owners in the legitimate use of private property.”
9.Fair Taxes: “I maintain that every person who enjoys the protection of his life, liberty, and property should bear his fair
share of the cost of government in providing that protection; that the elementary principles of justice set forth in the Constitution demand that all taxes imposed be uniform and that each person’s property or income be taxed at the same rate.”
10.Coinage: “I believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, and a circulation medium convertible into such money without loss. I regard it as a flagrant violation of the explicit provisions of the Constitution for the federal government to make it a criminal offense to use gold or silver coin as legal tender or to use irredeemable paper money.”
11.Sovereign States: “I believe that each State is sovereign in performing those functions reserved to it by the Constitution and it is destructive of our federal system and the right of self-government guaranteed under the Constitution for the federal government to regulate or control the States in performing their functions or to engage in performing such functions itself.”
12.Political Welfare: “I consider it a violation of the Constitution for the federal government to levy taxes for the support of state or local government; that no State or local government can accept funds from the federal and remain independent in performing its functions, nor can the citizens exercise their rights of self-government under such conditions.”
13.Anti-Foreign Aid: “I deem it a violation of the right of private property guaranteed under the Constitution for the federal government to forcibly deprive the citizens of this nation of their property through taxation or otherwise, and make a gift thereof to foreign governments or their citizens.”
14.No Foreign Control: “I believe that no treaty or agreement with other countries should deprive our citizens of rights guaranteed them by the Constitution.”
15.Strong Defense: “I consider it a direct violation of the obligation imposed upon it by the Constitution for the federal government to dismantle or weaken our military establishment below that point required for the protection of the States against invasion, or to surrender or commit our men, arms, or money to the control of foreign or world organizations of governments.”
“These things I believe to be the proper role of government.”
The Proper Role Of Government Doesn’t Evolve
For the same reason that human nature doesn’t change, neither should the authority granted to governments ever change.
Government may not possess more rights than those held by the individual. The individual may delegate certain rights—defense, justice, and raising revenue—but the government may not simply assume them. When it does, that is tyranny.
With these ideals in mind, what are the next steps forward?
Chapter 93: The New Beginning
There is a strong basis for abolishing socialism from the earth—not just temporarily, but completely and for all time. It has something to do with birds, frogs, snakes, and raccoons.
Letting Others Do the Work
One specie of the cuckoo bird has an interesting laziness to her nature. Perhaps it’s not laziness, maybe it’s her clever exploitation of circumstances—it is difficult to read nature at this level.
When the cuckoo hen needs to lay her egg, sometimes she flies about to locate the nests of other birds. She will wait patiently until the nest is unguarded, and then swoop in, lay her egg, and leave it for tending by other birds. This frees her from nest duty. She is free to fly. The unsuspecting nest owner returns to see the egg, or if it’s among her own, maybe not notice, and plops down to warm and protect them, keeping the eggs safe until hatching.
This trick doesn’t always work. Some birds recognize the strange addition and remove the egg completely. Nevertheless, it’s a great way to get what the cuckoo hen wants without the responsibilities and consequences—or so it would seem.
“Careful, That Will Land You In Hot Water!”
There’s the old story of the frog standing on his hind legs in the pot of water that was just placed over a hot stove. At first, the water is cool, a temperature typical for any pond or gentle stream he is familiar with—just like home. So, the frog is content to stay for a minute. He senses no urgency to leap away.
As the water becomes warmer, a relaxing embrace of summertime comfort entices the frog to bask in the delicious lure, and his eyes go half closed—he thinks a short nap would be nice, and does not leap away.
As the water gradually becomes hot, the frog suddenly realizes he is in danger. His instinct is to leap away but his legs and muscles have become too weak—he tries, but fails to find the strength. The heat quickly overcomes him and he dies in the boiling broth.
You Knew I Was a Snake When You Picked Me Up
In an adaptation of Aesop’s fable, a hiker is working his way off a mountain and comes upon a snake. The snake addresses the hiker and pleads for a ride down to the valley below. The hiker hesitates, but eventually agrees to do this favor for the snake.
Upon arriving at the bottom, the hiker sets the snake down and is promptly bitten. As the hiker falls to the ground, shocked and saddened at the sudden betrayal, the snake replies, “Why are you surprised? You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”
How Curiosity Killed the Raccoon
The classic children’s book Where the Red Fern Grows,778 tells the heartwarming story of a boy and his two Redbone Coonhound hunting dogs. Early in the book, author Wilson Rawls unfolds an exchange where Grandpa explains to his young grandson Billy how to catch a raccoon with a simple trap.
The trick, Grandpa said, is to bore a deep hole in a log and pound four nails around the outside at an angle so their points pierce the inside of the hole. The idea is to leave just enough space for a raccoon’s paw to fit through. Put a shiny piece of tin at the bottom and the raccoon’s curiosity will get the best of him—
“It’ll catch him all right,” Grandpa said, “and it won’t fail. You see, a coon is a curious little animal. Anything that is bright and shiny attracts him. He will reach in and pick it up. When his paw closes on the bright object it balls up, and when he starts to pull it from the hole, the sharp ends of the nails will gouge into his paw and he’s caught.”
Billy thinks it over a bit and decides Grandpa is telling a big joke. Growing angry, he gets up to leave but Grandpa calls him back and tells about a time when as a boy he had his own pet raccoon, and how he learned his pet would do exactly that—ball up his fist when he got hold of something he wanted, and refuse to let go. He told how the whole family had to hold down the raccoon to release his grip on a pat of butter he grabbed by reaching into the small hole in the lid of a butter churn. His balled-up fist was too big to pull back through, and he was caught.
Billy becomes convinced and goes to the nearby woods to give the idea a try. The next morning, he finds a raccoon stuck with its paw in the trap. It hisses and growls as Billy approaches, but won’t let go. Billy calls his family to come see, and they’re all surprised that grandpa’s idea really worked. Billy’s father kills the raccoon and goes about releasing it from the trap.
After Papa had pulled the nails, he lifted the coon’s paw from the hole. There, clamped firmly in it, was the bright piece of tin.
In a low voice Papa said, “Well, I’ll be darned. All he had to do was open it up and he was free, but he wouldn’t do it. Your grandfather was right.”
Letting Go of Socialism
Comfort, ease, and security are difficult to let go for the sake of long term prosperity. Most people in countries ruined by socialism are in that trap. They don’t want to let go of their pensions, monthly checks, food stamps, insurance, housing, transportation, or anything coming to them gratis from the government. Like the cuckoo hen, people on welfare grow content to leave the burden of their financial and medical care in the nest of another’s labors.
But like the frog’s trap, socialism’s promise of an easy life feels good until enough time has passed and financial reality sneaks up hot and boiling, and q
uickly turns deadly.
Like the snake’s ulterior motives, the appeal to embrace the hopes for an easier life may seem right at first. But when a socialistic takeover has reached its goal, there is deadly betrayal for which hundreds of millions have been sacrificed already.
And like the raccoon, that shiny bit of tin—the hope for free money from someone else, a government handout, welfare, entitlements, a bit of nothing that seemed so important and desirable at first, soon turns out to be a trap holding fast those who can’t let go, from which the only escape is death.
Learning How to Preserve Freedom779
Among the highest aspirations of humanity is the hope that someday there will be universal peace. Peace is more than an absence of war. It is the state of existence where men are free to enjoy self determination, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Bible says that the “meek shall inherit the earth.” The only reason this has not been possible so far is because each generation produces a minority group of barbarian personalities who become the Hitler’s, the Mussolini’s, the Stalin’s, the Kim Jong-il’s, the Osama bin Ladin’s, the Castro’s, the Mugabe’s, and hundreds of others. As long as there are barbarians among the meek, the peace of the earth is threatened. If the rights of the meek are to be preserved and the peace is to be enforced, the meek must stay strong. There is a critical moral difference between the peacemakers and the pacifists.
George Washington warned that pacifism doesn’t work, and without strength, peace simply isn’t possible—
“There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure the peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”780
The Naked Socialist Page 58