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Who are we? Who will we be? Who do we want to be? Now, raise your hand. Who has a nomination for someone to answer these questions for us, so we don’t have to? Who do you trust enough to decide your very nature? Who do you believe is so much better than you, that they should determine your future? Take a few seconds to decide...
It is certainly true that it “takes all kinds to make this ol’ world go ‘round”, so I am sure that there are many out there right now thinking seriously about just who they want to be in that position. For me and mine, I’m saying, “Are you crazy?”. I don’t want someone else to make such a personal and vital decision for me. Who I am, who I’ll be and what I want for myself is a very personal and integral part of my psyche. No one on this earth can possibly know me that intimately. Yet everywhere I look, I find pretenders who believe that they know what is best for me. They think they know what I should think about religion. They think they know what I should think about sex. They seem to be pretentious enough to know what I should think about government. They are even so brazen as to insist through force that they alone know what type of light bulb I need, or how big of a soft drink I should purchase. They wear their Ivy League degrees on their sleeves like illiterates sport pocket protectors full of pens. And so it is that without freedom and free markets; the most undeserving few, become the Lords of the many.
In all of human history there have been two models for human existence; the lone wolf and the hive. There have always been those who kept to themselves, took care of themselves, asked nothing of others and looked upon groups of humans with justifiable skepticism. These ‘Lone Wolves’ indeed gathered into groups but they were mostly family and very tightly regulated. Then you have the people who for a variety of reasons band together in much larger groups. In many cases the driving factor is security, though it is a self fulfilling prophecy is it not? The more large groups there are, the greater the necessity of large groups to defend oneself from large groups. It’s a vicious cycle. In the end these groups become like hives. A large society has a variety of needs. To efficiently provide for the collective, each unit must have a task. Maintaining order and discipline becomes paramount. This of course requires a leader and an enforcement group. A ‘Queen’ must be the utmost giver of life and the ‘Army’ must protect the Queen and keep the ‘Workers’ in line. These two models describe how most of society existed from the beginning of time up until...the year of our Lord 1776.
In the New World, a group of people who had the fortuitous opportunity to live in relative freedom for a while developed a new idea. You see these folks, while part of a hive had, because of their separation from the core and the nature of their existence become quite self-sufficient. As the oppression inherent in any hive began to exert itself upon them they came upon a most wonderful idea. What if Man could combine the two models of society into one? What if a people were educated and virtuous enough to be mostly left to their own lives? What if the tasks inherent to maintain any society were left to the people themselves to determine based upon merit and nothing more? What if these Lone Wolves made a compact with each other that they would allow a core, though very small and very limited in power and purpose, primarily to protect the Lone Wolf status of each? What if these Lone Wolves pledged their lives and their fortunes to the protection of each other? What if...Man could live in freedom, pursue whatever path he/she chose? What if...in fact, this model would produce more prosperity, more security and more benevolence than had ever been known by Man on earth? This is the miraculous blessing of constitutional republicanism.
In this model, each can decide their own fate. Each achieves to the level of their talent and their effort. Each is free to pursue invention and production unfettered by hive restrictions. The desires and dreams of generations are themselves the building blocks of the society. A natural hierarchy of excellence is instituted. Each individual in pursuit of their own greatness and reward, become an integrated part of a well-oiled societal machine that maximizes the outcome for all. Each item purchased on a free market is subject to the scrutiny of the purchaser. Each service provided is necessarily competitive in it’s excellence. Dollars chase efficiency. The system is perfect...almost. It can only be diminished by lack of implementation. It can only be torn down by expansion of the core. It can only fail, by the Lone Wolves willingly giving away their freedom to the core. And Lone Wolves would never do that would they? Well, I suppose if Wolves became Sheep...
I suppose it is true that earthly perfection is not for Man. But dadgummit...we sure came close.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
