Letter
to a Conservative
Conservatives are continually telling me that the "if it feels good do
it" mentality is what has caused the demise of countless societies and
cultures. Indeed, I was chastised by the following remark very recently.
"Fact: no nation for 5000 years has lasted past three generations after
the "Feels Good Do It Attitude" was accepted as doctrine of freedom."
1st, I don't know of any libertarian who advocates the "if it feels
good do it" doctrine of freedom. Indeed, rapists tell us their
crime feels good. What some libertarians may advocate is the "if it
feels good do it, as long as you don't hurt somebody else, attitude."
But barring this mischaracterization of libertarian principles, let's
assume the rephrased comment is the one the person in question
meant.
Fact: most of the "if it feels good do
it mentality" is caused by government intervention.
Yes, I agree with my friend, Rome fell because all the people cared
about was "Parades and Elephants and Wine" (to paraphrase Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar).
But what precipitated that? Empire and socialism.
By the end of the Roman Empire people looked to the State for free
goodies (welfare), but because most of the wealth had been destroyed by
state intervention Rome had to wage war to get those "goodies" so they
could bring them back to the people.
Government sponsored war and socialism is the encourager of self
destructive behavior.
Point in case, I went to my home-town in Bonners Ferry ID, to find that
one of my friends from College had decided to become a cop, and was
with the local DARE program in ID. I mentioned that I had developed
into
a libertarian over the past couple years and that drugs shouldn't be
illegal, because it's outside the bounds of basic protection of life,
liberty and property from infringements caused by others (per the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and most of the
classical liberal tradition.)
He said, "I'd have to disagree" And he mentioned about walking into a
meth house, and the kids are there, and "you know what's in that
stuff." (I very much into chemistry in High School).
But then I asked him the following question.
"How many of those drug busts, and meth houses that you've walked into
are in government housing."
He looked at me, kind-of shocked. He hadn't thought about it. But he
tried to think, but mentioned he thought all of them had been in
government housing.
From my own personal experience of living in the small town growing up,
I'm all to aware that the vast majority of the drug traffic goes
through the government subsidized apartment buildings.
When you give people free money, thereby discouraging them from
improving themselves and their condition, and allow them to continue
the same lifestyle even if they make themselves worse -- indeed, making
themselves worse off can sometimes even
get them more government money. People are going to tend towards self
destructive behavior. Socialism encourages self destruction. Drug
abuse, is simply that particular form of self destruction that the
government has decided is the area in which it needs to "protect" us
from ourselves.
My boss at where I work here in Sioux Falls, SD said he used to work
for the government in the reservations. The drugs are rampant there.
But, the reservations in many ways are also socialist cesspools. Free
Money, Free housing, Free Everything.
I even saw one time when I visited that one person had knocked out a
hole in the wall, because he didn't want to walk around through the
door. If it all gets replaced by the government for free, why not?
Socialism encourages self destruction.
And then you have government schools that program kids to be hedonistic
and materialistic. (See John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of
American Education. Or click here for an
overview.
And you have a government enforced Media Cartel known as the FCC. (Why
the FCC Must die)
It's no wonder people act the way they do, with all these government
created pressures encouraging irresponsibility and self destruction.
This is the nature of socialism.
It's government intervention that causes moral quandaries and
encourages moral turpitude. And my dear conservative friend, you want
MORE government intervention to "fix" the problem?
Well, that's exactly what happened, power hungry politicians made a
case that the government should do something about drug abuse (a
problem they encouraged in many ways -- if not outright caused), and
now we have the drug war, property confiscation, manditory
sentencing, the 4th through 8th ammendments thrown out the window,
etc. The
drug war is nothing more then an excuse to turn the U.S. into a police
state.
I really don't care about the drug war. I don't have this mission to
fight for marijuana
legalization like some libertarians do. (Although, it should be legal
-- indeed all drugs should, as it's not the governments job to protect
us from ourselves -- Indeed, it's protecting us to death as it is.) I
just don't think it's the real issue. Libertarians could win on this
issue, and the drug war could be gone, and the federal maffia would
dream up some other excuse to bully us around. The real issue is
massive government, and socialism.
Socialism encourages death, and self destruction, (and other people
caused destruction for that matter -- after all, if it's public
property, I partially own it, so why shouldn't I be allowed to
vandalize it if I want? Right? Socialism creates these moral
quandaries.
The Bible says though shalt not steal, but the very concept of thievery
becomes meaningless if nobody owns anything. Read Faith and Liberty. It's an
excellent book about the late Spanish
Scholastics. See an excellent review at the Mises Institute: Part 1 and Part 2.)
So socialism, government ownership, the idea that we're all serfs and
the government can take and redistribute anything under our control
breaks down the respect people have for themselves and for each other.
Socialism is what's destroying the family structure -- something that
conservatives believe should be the foundation of society. So if you
want to save the family,
and save Marriage, and all these other things that social conservatives
(including myself) cherish, the answer is to abolish socialism, and
abolish big central government.
Like I mentioned before, socialism also encourages warmongering (and
vice versa). Conservatives used to understand this. They used to
understand that the warfare/welfare state were one and the same.
Interference abroad or interference at home,: there really isn't any
difference. This is where modern liberals are all wet. You can't have
big government socialism at home, with-out the warfare state. Socialism
encourage tarrifs and other protectionistic legislation, and we're all
to familiar with the adage, "If goods don't cross boarders, armies
will." But
likewise the conservatives are wrong too. You can't have warfare abroad
with-out the welfare state. So if you want to get rid of the welfare
state that contributes to the continuing decadence of our culture, you
MUST oppose the warfare state as well. Famous old right critic of FDR,
John T. Flynn, explains it well in his now currently out-of print book As We Go Marching.
All of our enemies are of our own creation. We funded the Talaban and
put them in power in Afghanistan to help get rid of the communism
there. (You know, that big boogyman, that eventually just collapsed
under it's own tyranny, while simultaneously giving the U.S. an excuse
to increase a warfare/welfare- regulation/police state state of it's
own brand.) We also funded and propped up Saddam to help us with
Iranian theocracy. (Of course, the only reason they had a Shah was
because our own CIA destabilized the one democracy that was over in the
middle east and installed him.)
You see, the only reason -- to support this war (indeed, any war this
country has been involved with since WW1) is to "fix" the mistakes that
we've caused(or "blowback" to borrow a term from the CIA) But like
government government "fixes" to their own interference domestically
(like when it tried to fix problems caused by socialism with the drug
war), "fixing" foreign problems just cause more problems.
The Government is like a plumber who breaks more pipes then he fixes --
only because he's coercively funded off the backs of taxpayers, you
can't fire him.
Indeed, this very war in Iraq is being espoused by many people as a
form of welfare. We're doing the Iraqis a great charitable service, by
"liberating" them. But just like domestic government welfare/police
state only causes more problems and hurts the very people it's
supposedly designed to help, Foreign welfare/warfare is wrong too.
Realistically, If we want to help "stabilize the region" and help
liberalise (and I mean that in the classical sense) the people of Iraq
and the rest of the world, we should be promoting unilateral free trade
(not international government regulated "fair trade" like NAFTA, GATT,
etc.). Instead of sanctions that lead to war, and more instability.
It's the best way to help increase the prosperity of those countries
while at the same time not propping up
dictators like our foreign welfare program (which incidently Bush is
PROUD that he's increased -- or did you miss that whole AIDS Bill to
Africa -- part of which uses tax dollars to fund
abortions). Incidently
foreign welfare is another example of the insidious relationship
between the warfare and welfare states. Foreign welfare causes
civil wars, and makes us enemies.
Even disregarding all our nation building the past 80+ years (100+ if
you count Teddy Roosevelt.) It's our government's fault 911 happened.
Our government regulates the entire airline industry (a form of
socialism), while at the same
time it makes it illegal for airports to have their own private
security, and usurps our right to bare arms. So What does Bush do? He
creates even MORE government
bureaucracy. A bureaucracy that still
stonewalls
pilots from having guns. He also promised to renew the
semi-auto weapon ban if congress extended its sunset. (Which
fortunately, they didn't.) More police statism, and more victim
disarmament only makes us less secure.
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for
security, deserve neither and will get neither." The only way for us to
be maximally secure, is to have maximum liberty. The lesson of 911, is
that top-down centralised government in inherently incompetent to
protect us against a diffuse, amorphous, decentralised tactic like
terrorism. Private individuals exercising their right to defend
their own property, is the
type of diffuse, amorphous, decentralised method we need to respond to
this threat. But the government's basically made that illegal, and then
said, "Trust us,
we're the government."
So if you want security, cease military adventurism, and take back your
right to defend yourself. Neither Bush or Kerry, are going to help you
do that.
This has been the pattern of the Statist for eons. The State interferes
-- either in domestic or foreign affairs. Thhe State
interference causes problems. The State blames those problems on market
processes and takes it upon itself to "fix" them, which causes more
problems. -- hence, the road to serfdom/fascism/ omnipotent
government/(whatever you want to call it).
So, if you want your families to stay in tact, support ending domestic
interference (socialism, regulation, etc.) It's utopian
and naive to believe that some government law can "fix" our moral
problems. And it's downright idol worship to put your trust in The
State, to protect the holy and sacred institution like Marriage --
something that should be the realm of the church.
And that's another thing.
I understand the constitution doesn't say "Separation of Church and
State." But I've come to the conclusion that separation of
church and state is the best way to keep the church from becoming
corrupt. We need to oppose Bushes tax funding of "faith based
charities" and other intrusions. You don't want the church
dependent on government for support or protectionist laws or
anything like that. It's only a matter of time before somebody you
don't like gets elected and used that new found power coercively
against the church. (Indeed, many Catholic hospitals around the country
have been in lawsuits because they take public money, but don't want to
perform abortions.)
So, if you want the Church to be healthy:
If you want your families to stay in tact:
If you want security:
Abolish the Warfare state, Abolish the welfare state, Abolish the
regulation/surveillance/police state, and Abolish centralised big
government.
And eventually we need to abolish the federal government itself in an
effort to try and prevent this build-up of centralised government
interference from
happening again. Only by doing this will we be able to stay the free,
secure, and moral culture that conservatives long for.
Tracy Saboe