Wednesday in class, one of my studens who had me before asked me if I was "going to be a Nazi and grade harshly for naming organic compounds". I stopped her right there and asked her to consider her words carefully. I asked the students to show by a raise of hands which of them had ever met a real Nazi- a Jew-gassing, Hitler-loving, facist, totalitarian Nazi. I was the only one in the room who ever had, and I've met more than one. They are creepy.
You see, the Nazis are an easy scapegoat. None of us are that bad, unless of course we're projecting personally objectionable behavior onto someone else via hyperbole. I have seen no shortage of this during the campaign as people look for the bad in the candidates they dislike and tout the virtues of people they support. They see what they choose to see, investigate the obvious and ignore everything else. You see, it's easier to be right than to change.
Most totalitarians and monarchists believe themselves to be better. Consequently, they view themselves as the source of our rights- that what we have is because they are gracious and generous. However, as the Jews of Germany or the Hutus of Rwanda or the people slaughtered by Slobadon Milosevic will tell you, if rights come from government, they can be taken away by government instantly without redress.
Our nation was founded on the predication that rights do not come from government. Society doesn't even come from government. People gathered together long before they made governments; men were before they made government, and therefore the created cannot be greater than the creator. Rights cannot come from something man creates; if they come from man, they must come from society of man, which is different than government. This is why I embrace individual sovereignty and memorized and hung a copy of the Declaration of Independence in my home- it protects and preserves all that I value in this world.
In November, this nation will decide whether or not they still desire to be free. The funny thing to me is that this is the same fight that men have always fought- to decide whether any society conceived in liberty can long endure. Our circumstance is full of paradox: We can vote for our leaders, but we cannot buy the toilets or cars we choose; our bodies are ours if we want an abortion, but we can't eat whatever we like. Either we are free or we are not, and we are not. I'm not saying I believe in anarchy. Freedom isn't to do whatever you like as much as it is the ability to do what we ought.
Totalian tyrannies are not fun. They are not cheap. Someone has to pay for all the freebies Obama promises to give you. Someone had to make available all the rights he's created. They are not rights. His ignorance of the definition of the word "right" does not excuse him to use hte word to his own nefarious ends, but this is not a vocabulary lesson. It's a lesson on principle. The point of America is the notion that men are and ought to be free if they come here to do what they ought. It's not about the land or the money or what letter follows you in as a party affiliation- it's about the notion of value and values. That's where we differ.
Far too many people, no matter what party they advocate and including both Presidential candidates in my honest opinion, are more concerned with who is right than what is right. It's why Obama can't be taught and why Romney can't be tied down. Both of them act as if it's all about them, and it's not. America predates them, and God willing will be around long after they are dead. I am not a big fan of Romney, but at least he doesn't hate this country and despise our success and freedom. As far as liberals are concerned, you will always have too much money and too much freedom until you have none at all of either.
That's why I will proclaim liberty. Liberty allows us to find out what is right, sometimes by trial and error. It's a fundamental precept of our Faith- that men make mistakes and learn and correct them through the Atonement of Christ who fixes things and makes us clean. Contrary to what you hear, we have not in this generation actually given liberty a chance. They give it an inch and then, seeing any weakness, take a yard. Then they see only good in their own ideas. That's a very vain and arrogant way to act, but then again, it's also very human, and human beings are not logical or rational, no matter how much they may aspire to be like or equate themselves with Spock.
In my opinion, the only way to live long and prosper for most people is for the people to be as free as possible. People under duress are never happy or free.
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