America is (or was intended to be) a
Christian nation.
More specifically, a
Protestant nation.
More specific than that, a
Presbyterian nation.
The British (Church of England) referred to
the American Revolution as "the
Presbyterian junto"
I'm a Calvinist. I believe in the
Calvinist doctrine of "the
depravity of man."
The Framers of the U.S. Constitution
believed in "the depravity of man." James Madison studied
under John Witherspoon, the Calvinist President of Princeton University
and Signer of the Declaration of Independence. As
Madison put it, " If men were angels, no government would
be necessary." This is arguably the most famous line from The
Federalist Papers. We've all heard this in our civics class. We need
"government" to keep society in line.
But in that
particular essay (#51), Madison was not trying to emphasize the need for
society to have a civil government. Everybody already agreed on that. He
was stressing the need to control the controllers:
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. It may be a reflection
on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control
the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the
greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no
government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither
external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In
framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the
great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to
control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control
itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary
control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the
necessity of auxiliary precautions.
Hence the need for such "auxiliary precautions" as
"checks and balances," a "separation of powers," and
a Bill of Rights. All because we cannot trust men with political power. Trusting
the government is un-American.
But, as we know, the Framers
trusted men with political power anyway. They (wrongly) believed that God
required men to form governments. If you go through the Bible verse
by verse, at each step asking the question, "did God just now
command human beings to form what we know as 'the State?'" after
each of the 31,103 verses you will have to answer "No." God
never commanded human beings to form "the State." "The
State" was invented by unGodly rebels like Nimrod. I'll
betcha.
The institution called "the State" is
responsible for more
evil than any other institution ever created by man. More evil than
all organized crime. More evil than all "private sector" evil.
And the United States, believe it or not, is the
most evil government on the planet.
Some will say, "But
if we don't have any government, society will be plunged into anarchy."
"Anarchy"
in this case means "chaos, lawlessness, rampant crime."
Why
would "chaos, lawlessness, and rampant crime" break out
without politicians? Because of "the depravity of man." That's
the usual conservative answer.
I would like to suggest that human
beings are better than that.
The Bible says that every human being
knows it is immoral to steal or to hurt other people. See the first two
chapters of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans.
14 The Gentiles do not have the law [which was given through
Moses]. But they do what the law says because their own hearts tell
them to. They have a law of their own, even though they do not know
the law [of Moses].
15 They show that the law is written in their
hearts. They know what is right to do and what is wrong to do. Their
own thoughts tell them they have done what is wrong or what is not
wrong.)
Romans
2:14-15
The King James Version renders verse 15:
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while
accusing or else excusing one another
Christians are often told they should not judge homosexuals,
adulterers or abortionists. That, of course, is an intolerant judgment
of/against Christians.
I believe judging
people is a good thing. The world would have been a better place if
the German people had properly judged the Nazis, and been a little less
"tolerant" and a little more "bigoted."
Judging is an aspect of our "dominion
mandate," as we each take personal responsibility for the
creation of civilization.
As the
KJV suggests, we all accuse or excuse other people all the time, based
on our internal moral compass.
This capacity for judging others
holds us all in check. I would like to suggest that our concern over the
moral judgments of our family, neighbors, co-workers, employers, and
Facebook friends, is more immediately important to us than what
politicians in Washington D.C. think about us.
If Washington D.C.
were to fall into hell, nobody would notice. "Anarchy" would
not break out, even if we lived in a state of literal anarchy, that is,
a stateless condition. People will still be judgmental. There will be
social pressure not to steal. The Bible says unbelievers
tend to pretend to be believers. This is why you have so many
"hypocrites" in church.
It is not a good thing when
"the government" convinces the population that all judging
will be done by the State, sit back, relax, "don't be
judgmental." The State cannot do all judging. The State doesn't
have enough information
to make the decisions each of us must make to keep the machine
humming. Each of us needs to be a judge, and engage in economic
forecasting and prudent management based on our judgments. Woe to us if
we become dependent on the State for judgment and our powers of judgment
atrophy.
If you believe in the "depravity of man," you
might admit that there are times when you would like to steal, but
you're afraid someone will find out. You don't want to be judged by the
public as a thief.
Not simply that you don't want to be arrested
by the government's police. Most criminals think they can evade the
police and "get away with it." Non-criminals like you are more
concerned about what other non-criminals like you think about you.
People
who don't care what others think are called "sociopaths."
They
can inflict harm on others, because they don't care what others feel.
They
are not social.
Here's why anarchy (a society
without politicians) is our best option.
First, the cost of
creating a "civil government" -- a socialist monopoly on
security -- to deal with the small percentage of people who are criminal
sociopaths is greater than the cost to society inflicted by those
sociopaths. You pay about 2/3
of everything you earn to the federal government. Every year. Do you
think if we abolished the federal government that private sector
criminals would inflict that much damage on you? By abolishing corporate
income taxes (which you pay at the checkstand) and income taxes and all
other ways Washington D.C. has its hand in your wallet, your disposable
income would double, and you could afford to buy a much better system of
security than the government provides, at a more competitive price.
Capitalists would see to that very quickly. (Right now, there's less of
a market for private security because consumers live under the
illusion that the government protects them. Which
it doesn't.)
Second, government destroys the family, and it
is families that create empathy and prevent
children from growing up to be sociopaths. More powerful government
means less powerful families, with mothers forced to get a job outside
the home to pay the government's taxes, and more sociopaths. Then
the cry goes up for more government, and you have a vicious cycle
of declining civilization.
Third,
sociopaths are attracted to government like bees to honey. Politicians
are more likely to be sociopaths than any other occupation. You want
more government? Get ready to pay more taxes to hire more sociopaths.
Sociopaths love the power to control, to steal, to inflict pain, and --
best of all -- to do it "legally." And get paid handsomely to
do it. Why on earth would you hire sociopaths to protect you from
sociopaths?
Let's start imagining a less sociopathic society.
Let's imagine how human beings would interact when our powers of
judgment are keen and honed, without sociopaths in
"government". Start
here. See how self-government
begins with judging. A free market continually trains us in judging,
rewarding good judgments, and penalizing bad judgments. Calvinist
Anarcho-Capitalism perfects us to greater levels of personal
responsibility. Government sociopaths make us dependant children.
