The Line of Liberty

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Happy New Year!! To all of my readers I want to give a very personal 'Thank You' for reading, responding and sharing information with friends and family as we all do our part to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Let us all resolve to spend just a little more time each week to educate ourselves and our loved ones on the most important issue of our time; the preservation of Liberty for future generations.

Let us begin today by reaffirming or perhaps firstly defining and understanding what is meant by the term, Liberty, as used and intended by our Founding Fathers. Some people have the misunderstanding that liberty in reality means chaos. This would be the anarchists definition of liberty. Each to his/her own, self interests, self preservation and self indulgence. In fact this is nothing close to the true definition as understood by the original Patriots. We must in fact include virtue in the discussion for without it there cannot be Liberty.

The big lie that is seemingly accepted as fact in modern political discourse is that there is a 'Left' and a 'Right' to the spectrum of ideology and that a natural state should exist somewhere in between; the so-called 'Moderate' position. The following graph gives a truer visual sense of where ideologies lie:

To the left you have total anarchy. Everyone for themselves, no laws, no leaders, to each his own. The principle of anarchy is a form of moral relativism; no one can deliniate right and wrong for another, therefore each determines right and wrong for themselves. As such, people are not capable nor intended to combine principles and form governments. Truly the call of the wild; humans are relegated to not much more than sophisticated animals.

In the center you have Oligarchy, rule by committee or group of 'enlightened' individuals. This ideology is based on the idea that Man is incapable of deciding rightly for himself due to his inherent evil and selfish nature. Therefore, an elite group of benevolent rulers should rightly decide what is good for us and then force us to comply thereby creating a perfect society among imperfect individuals. Individual freedom is subjugated for the collective.

To the right you have Totalitarianism, total rule by one. (Many wrongly think that this means one individual, a Dictator) In this ideology, the only way to control the outcome of society is complete control over all aspects of life. Property, commerce, labor, finance and human resources are under total control. The state can kill on the spot. There is no law other than the law of the leader. The concept theoretically implies a benevolent leader who loves the people and therefore takes all power to control society and abolish suffering and establish complete equality among the people, (except of course in regards to the leader). This rule of 'one' can in fact be a group of individuals, such as a religious council, but the difference from an oligarchy is that there is no room for experimentation or manipulation of freedom or commerce. It is a set ideology without debate exercising total control.

So, we see that the real description of political ideology is a line, with all points further on the line representing control by the government over the people. Zero control with Anarchism and Total control with Totalitarianism. A Constitutional republic lies somewhere just to the right of Anarchism; government control that is implemented and controlled by the people to protect and further their individual goals through community.

Communism/Progressivism/Socialism/Marxism all basically one and the same, lie to the right of Oligarchy. A group of enlightened ones to control the people for the good of the collective. A bee hive mentality where the worker bees are controlled by the internal hive protectors. As with a hive of bees, a group may splinter off, swarm if you will, to another hive with different environment and different goals, but the internal protectors will still control, though the goals may be different. This accounts for the many forms of communism we have seen in the last century. Each adopts to the people and culture where it forms. But the control of the people persists. The subjugation of the individual to the collective is paramount.

Islam lies just to the left of Totalitarianism if not at the very end of the line. Islam is a set of laws and principles that are beyond debate. A person or a group of religious leaders is established to achieve the goals of these laws and principles and have full power to control individuals to that goal. If the people abide by the laws and principles, they are left alone. To that extent this ideology may lie slightly to the left of the end of the line, but complete compliance is required. The implementation of this ideology is accomplished through any means including deceipt, manipulation, slavery, and force of all kinds from intimidation to all out war.

Now, I know this is a little extensive but very important. Please notice something about all of the above descriptions of ideologies: Only one requires education and virtue. Virtue is the developed ability to resist our natural tendancies of selfishness and combine our separate desires into community by means of free will. It is by virtue that we achieve self-governance. We institute a government amongst ourselves with limited powers to protect our life and property while preserving our rights to freely choose our path for the purpose of community of common interests. This nuanced combining of personal freedom with a goal of community to enhance that freedom, protected by self-governance, is Liberty. It is vital to the perpetuation of our national cultural traditions and values for every citizen to fully understand this definition of Liberty. Liberty as understood by the founders was not willy nilly individualistic freedom untethered; that is anarchy. Liberty is a combined virtuous agreement among a common peoples, to institute a rule of law for the protection of our rights and goals as a community with similar interests. The vital concept that is the linchpin of self-governance is virtue and education (Proverbs 24:3). A people must be aware that it is free will that enjoins us as a nation. It is understanding that this free will is given by God and not by Man, who can only protect it or steal it. A people must be aware that their Liberty is threatened, the consequences of such and the extreme difficulty of regaining that which is lost. Every move along the line toward more government control is not only difficult to reverse, it is exponential in nature. In other words, the further you allow a move along the line, the greater the next move will be. Once you approach an Oligarchy, as I believe we are very close to, movement back on the line is near impossible without the expense of blood. We must also be aware that all peoples have problems, but the subjugation of the many because of the misfortunes of the few is not an answer, it is indeed institution of problems. Therefore, communities must resolve to care for the unfortunate among them on a local level. So what if we don't? Then our society is at risk and we must take action. But that action is not to become subjects of collectivism, the action is to buttress education and virtue among our people to regain our footing in the community. There are no more caring and generous people than the American people. This is where the big lie begets tyranny. This is where the so-called moderates allow the move along the line. While in their minds they are making our community better, in fact they are moving us towards Oligarchy which inevitably leads to Totalitarianism. History is very clear on this. Remember the old saying, (sayings are old because they are true) the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

As this new year begins, as we struggle to survive our latest folly of Socialism/Marxism, as we despair at the lack of true leadership from which to choose; let us all resolve to understand what Liberty truly means. To educate ourselves and our children. To understand that a century worth of movement along the line will not be reversed quickly. To lay the groundwork for our progeny to re-establish self-governance through personal education and virtue. To comfort our souls and those of our friends and family that a people grounded in faith, educated in Liberty and armed with virtue cannot be enslaved, can and will enjoy self-governance and will always prevail over tyranny whether well-intentioned or nefarious in nature. In the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

Finally, I want to leave you with this thought in your mind. Beware the siren's call of those who purport to be smarter or more sophisticated with modern sensibilities. Modernity changes not the nature of Man nor the history of civilization. The very reason that history repeats itself is because of 'modern' intelligentsia who make claim to a higher understanding that makes older knowledge irrelevant. It is a lie. Historical knowledge is never irrelevant. Our Founding Fathers based our form of government on the nature of Man and on our virtuous and faithful traditions. Nothing has or will change from then to eternity in regards to these truths. We don't need a new system. We only need ever more fervent defense of the system they devised. It is not just a generational battle; it is indeed a perpetual battle. For as long as Man is on earth, we will be flawed. Our choice is only that of self-governance as designed by our Founders, or incremental slavery ultimately resulting in chaos. There is no 'third way'.

May God Bless you all and may God Bless the United States of America.

by: Keith D. Rodebush