Ask any high school graduate about our right to free speech and they can at least give a canned answer out of a civics book about how our freedom of speech allows us to criticize government without fear of retribution. Ask them about the right to bear arms and they may give contradictory answers depending upon where they were raised and by whom, but they will at least acknowledge that we have the right at least in some cases. Now ask them to explain the importance and true meaning of our unalienable right to ‘pursue happiness’ and I’ll bet you will get as many blank stares as anything. Most Americans today do not fully appreciate the power and necessity of property rights in our republican form of government.
To understand the history of property rights one need only go to the Bible to begin. Thou Shalt Not Steal. Why? Humans know stealing is wrong because it is innately understood that a person has a right to keep his/her property. When children are being raised one of the first words they learn in any language is ‘mine’. Children instinctively understand the concept of ownership. We are taught to share and act kindly and rightly so; but we first understand selfishness, then we learn self-control. Why is it hardwired into our psyche to protect our property?
Without getting too deeply into the biological and psychological weeds, one can surmise that protecting our property is instinctive simply for self-preservation. Much as a lion protects its kill from opportunistic scavengers, we protect our property from mooches and Marxists. But of course this is not why our Founders believed it to be so important. I can hear the emotional rants of our socialist brethren already, “We are not animals and we can learn to all get along and share according to our needs.” And that is why they always fail. Socialist/Marxists/Modern Liberals/Progressives/Communists/Democrats all refuse to recognize a simple truth about human nature. We humans are industrious by necessity and self-interest, not by temperament.
This most human of all traits, self-interest, was and is recognized by reasoned persons past and present as the most important tool for society to promote prosperity. And prosperity is the balm that soothes all social ills and the glue that binds the plethora of individuals and groups that might be found in any society. Why do I care that you are a racist if I can afford to move away from you? Why do I care that you walk naked in your yard if I can build a fence to isolate you? Why do I care that you have strange religious habits if I can afford to ignore you? I don’t even care that you are a thief if I can afford the taxes to have you arrested and punished. Prosperity frees the mind to expand and contemplate philosophy, art, religion and politics. Prosperity encourages family activities and bonding. Prosperity gives the most valuable gift of all to a child; time. Prosperity allows for the most sincere and righteous expression of love to thy neighbors.
John Locke understood this when he wrote, “Every man has a property in his own person...The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his.” – Second Treatise of Government 1690
Samuel Adams understood this and even proffered that one could not give up ones rights when he wrote, “In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.” – The Rights of the Colonists 1772 (emphasis mine)
Thomas Jefferson re-iterated these rights in the Declaration of Independence. The U.S. Constitution was written precisely to compel government to use its enumerated powers to protect these rights. Remember, the sole purpose of the federal government is to protect the individual rights of the People and the Several States. They do not have the power and we do not have the authority to allow them to do any more. As such we currently live under an illegitimate government. It is incumbent upon all citizens to do all they can to return this government to its purpose; including protecting our property rights. The Liberty of our extended family and future generations depends on us to do such.Currently our government steals the property of one citizen and gives it to another. Our government restricts what one can do with their own property and leverages that power for personal gain in the form of contribution and bribery. Our government takes unequally from some citizens and none from others and does so under the absurd banner of ‘fairness’. Our government denies Liberty to citizens for collecting water on their property. Our government restricts citizens from growing, harvesting and selling food. Our government tells citizens what they can and can’t eat. Our government regulates business to the extent that they pick which businesses profit and which are punished. They use this power to corrupt businessmen and politicians. Our government colludes with corporations to write regulations that trample the rights of individual businessmen to engage in the free market. Government and corporations prosper while the citizenry suffers and must work ever harder just to survive. The insidious, incestuous and corrupt alliance between government and business is grounded in the erosion of personal property rights. The tyrannical nature of government is grounded in the denial of personal property rights. Socialism, Fascism and Totalitarianism all depend on the destruction of personal property rights.
When Barack Obama says, “You didn’t build that.” he reveals his disdain for property rights. When Marxists want to redistribute wealth they reject property rights. When politicians promote any unequal punishment through taxes or regulation, they deny your God-given right to the fruits of your own labor and talents. In every case of unequal taxes and/or regulation the result is corruption and oppression of one group for the benefit of another preferred group. This is tyranny. This is evil. And this is only possible when the People are ignorant of the true role of government to actually protect every individuals natural right to earn, keep and amass private property.
God warns us against envy. Envy of the property of one is to encourage the destruction of your own right to earn and keep property. In my previous post I pointed out that envy is the bedrock of the modern Democrat Party. This is why I call it the Devils Party. It is no coincidence that the Communist Manifesto can be condensed into one concept; the destruction of personal property rights. Today when someone accuses Barack Obama or his ilk of being communist or socialist or Marxist, which are in fact all the same, they are impugned and chastised as being ridiculous. The authors of the Communist Manifesto would disagree. What does that tell you about the state of political discourse in modern America? Lying is respected more than truth. Truth is not allowed because truth would require the protection of individual private property at all costs. Anyone regardless of party affiliation, education or community standing who advocates for the forceful taking of one citizens property for the benefit of the collective or the whole, is a Marxist, a Communist, a Progressive and a modern liberal. They are evil regardless of intent, for they propose the denial of God-given natural rights of Man. They seek not only to allow their own slavery, but boldly promote the slavery of others, even those yet born. They have the unmitigated gall to attempt to do so under the banner of compassion. There is no more despicable human being on the face of the planet than these. They deserve not your tolerance, your respect nor your support. They deserve the contempt and refutation of all free Men and should be publicly called what they are; destroyers of the very essence of Man. They are antithetical to the virtues, the values and the promise of America as founded. They are at opposites of all of the philosophers of freedom. They must be defeated at all costs. Their name should always be impugned. Their ideology forever rejected. Our children should always be taught the evil of those who do not respect the rights of individuals to earn, own and collect private property. To deny same is to deny America, indeed to deny God. But then the Devils Party just did that in their recent convention. I for one was not surprised at all.
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