Quote:
Originally Posted by justplugit
The problem lies in the self-centeredness of human nature where the Love of money is the root of all evil. Only a higher good can overcome it.
Along those lines a major difference between those who adhere to our founding principles and those who replace those principles with the progressive model of government is in what each views to be the most important aspect of human nature.
The founding idea was based on that portion of human nature which sought an individual liberty to define ones life with the least amount of interference from government. The progressive idea saw individual humans as basically helpless against the flow of history. For Progressives the most important aspect of human nature was its need to be protected from life's misfortunes.
The Founders saw history as a consequence of human activity. The Progressives saw history as an inexorable force, a sort of Hegelian dialectic which could not be resisted and against which individuals were meaningless.
The Founders understood that there was a role for government in the protection of a society of individuals. A limited role that served the people. The Progressives saw government as the only power that could protect the people and that it must not be limited in its scope to do so.
The Founders devised a government which would promote what they considered the higher, nobler portions of human nature--to strive in those self defined ways in which they were endowed by a higher power, a creator, against the vicissitudes of life. The Progressives transformed that government to provide for the needs of that "lower" portion of human nature, the need to be sheltered against misfortune.
Problems cannot be solved unless their solution is based on truth.
|
Truth is a principle by which the Founder's system must operate, and on which the system was devised. In hammering out that system, they did not lie or dissemble to one another. They argued and debated about what they truly believed and desired. Their "truth" was based on the recorded history of human experience and the experience they were living. They were not afraid to face the difficulties of life as individuals, but understood that there was a need to provide for the common defense and welfare and to protect the free association and commerce among one another. They provided a constant, predictable social pact based on immutable principles, but provided for the necessity of change. The individual freedom, the free association, the common defense and commerce among each other depended on truth to be effective. Falsehoods would eventually distort and destroy the foundation and principles on which society depended.
For the Progressives, truth was relative. What was true in one generation might not be true in another, or even from moment to moment in the extreme. Constant change was the mode of existence and the way of governing. Principles were obstacles to change. Solutions would not be based on "truth" but on expediency. The exigence of the moment dictated how and what would be changed. Only an all-powerful central control of society could cope with this constantly shifting existence. "Hope and change" is not merely a catchy and attractive phrase, it is the essence of progressivism. And if those you wish to convert from so-called individual freedom to being protected and nourished by the collective, a few lies about what you are doing will eventually be appreciated when the greater good is established.
Of course, don't expect any change to last long. Time and history march on. The central power must constantly upgrade and reform. What may appear to be failures are just inevitable changes. New "theses" will always be followed by new"antitheses" from which new "syntheses" will be achieved--and the change will be faster as we technologically progress--until the ultimate synthesis is achieved--the perfect synthesis--utopia--the perfect society. Kinda like what Marx said.