An unapologetic collection of observations from the field as the world comes to what promises to be a glorious and, at the same time, a very nasty end.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Liberal Logic: Utopia by Pronouncement
(c) 2012 by Tom King
Liberals have always wished for a world in which poverty did not exist and, God bless ‘em, they actually believe it’s possible.
It is not. Jesus said that the poor would be always with us in this
world. That’s because, so long as men lust for power over their fellows,
there will be inequity.
The great liberal error is the belief that secular power can be wielded to force society to be kind and merciful and fair - that Utopia can be had by legal pronouncement.
Unfortunately, power corrupts, however much the left wishes to
believe that it does not. By limiting the power of the new American
government over the daily lives of its citizens, our founding fathers
created an economy in which, not only was success possible, but also one
in which success was more probable than virtually anywhere else in the
world.
I remember when I was 4 years old I had a train set. My mother forbid
me to plug in the transformer myself. One day I asked her to plug in my
train set, but she was watching “As the World Turns” and told me to wait
till it went off. I didn’t want to wait, so I grabbed the plug firmly
with my index finger between the prongs and plugged it into a wall
socket.
There was a loud pop, the lights flickered and Mom found me on the floor sprawled across the train tracks wondering who I was and why I'd been born. I learned that day, the danger of putting too much power in the wrong hands.
Knowing politicians as we do, is there ANYBODY that truly believes
that putting more power in their hands (what with their collective track
record) is a good idea? Does anyone believe that giving massive power
over our economy, our medical care, our housing, our jobs or the
education of our kids to this incredible collection of massive egos is
going to result in everyone being elevated to equal status with our elitist overlords?
Not bloody likely!
You can't create Utopia by declaring that you've created Utopia. Utopia is only possible if it is peopled with perfect people. An Earthly Utopia will, therefore, never work. No amount of laws will accomplish it. After all, Christ gave us one simple law - the Golden Rule. If we all obeyed it, there would be no more war, no more poverty, no more evil. What makes anyone think that adding a bunch of legal addendums to that one basic law will mean people are going to go, "Oh, that's what 'treat others the way you want to be treated' means!" and suddenly break out in goodness.
Won't happen. We're going to have to wait for heaven. If you don't believe in heaven, then you're just waiting around trying to figure out how to make yourself relatively happy by grabbing your share before the whole thing goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket or you have a coronary and drop dead.
It is not. Jesus said that the poor would be always with us in this world. That’s because, so long as men lust for power over their fellows, there will be inequity.
The great liberal error is the belief that secular power can be wielded to force society to be kind and merciful and fair - that Utopia can be had by legal pronouncement.
Unfortunately, power corrupts, however much the left wishes to believe that it does not. By limiting the power of the new American government over the daily lives of its citizens, our founding fathers created an economy in which, not only was success possible, but also one in which success was more probable than virtually anywhere else in the world.
I remember when I was 4 years old I had a train set. My mother forbid me to plug in the transformer myself. One day I asked her to plug in my train set, but she was watching “As the World Turns” and told me to wait till it went off. I didn’t want to wait, so I grabbed the plug firmly with my index finger between the prongs and plugged it into a wall socket.
There was a loud pop, the lights flickered and Mom found me on the floor sprawled across the train tracks wondering who I was and why I'd been born. I learned that day, the danger of putting too much power in the wrong hands.
Knowing politicians as we do, is there ANYBODY that truly believes that putting more power in their hands (what with their collective track record) is a good idea? Does anyone believe that giving massive power over our economy, our medical care, our housing, our jobs or the education of our kids to this incredible collection of massive egos is going to result in everyone being elevated to equal status with our elitist overlords?
Not bloody likely!
You can't create Utopia by declaring that you've created Utopia. Utopia is only possible if it is peopled with perfect people. An Earthly Utopia will, therefore, never work. No amount of laws will accomplish it. After all, Christ gave us one simple law - the Golden Rule. If we all obeyed it, there would be no more war, no more poverty, no more evil. What makes anyone think that adding a bunch of legal addendums to that one basic law will mean people are going to go, "Oh, that's what 'treat others the way you want to be treated' means!" and suddenly break out in goodness.
Won't happen. We're going to have to wait for heaven. If you don't believe in heaven, then you're just waiting around trying to figure out how to make yourself relatively happy by grabbing your share before the whole thing goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket or you have a coronary and drop dead.
I'm just saying.
Tom King