21st Century Georgics: An Introduction
July 29, 2008 by Hyrum Lefler · 4 Comments
A key factor in maintaining freedom is sustainable economic forms. Are you maintaining freedom through the financial principles and practices you are using? Have American families adopted the economic forms necessary for the preservation of a free people?
The average American household pays over 34.5% of every dollar earned to interest payments. Forget about the taxes — that is serious bondage! Our system has become top heavy, threatening our economic solvency as a nation and necessitating large government bailouts to offset their blunders. When a government is forced to tax its people heavily to keep economic centers of capital from collapsing, how can we expect it to reduce in size? To force such a thing is tantamount to economic collapse.
We have allowed our wealth to centralize and grow in the hands of OTHERS. We have given them our money and the control of it for the “magic of compound interest” and then turned around and borrowed from them with a price.
Families are the foundation of American stability and economic growth, and it is time for families to regain real control of the resources of the economy. What do I suggest? We obviously cannot steal all of the money and put it in our families’ accounts! No, I am suggesting that we have all of the resources we need, and they flow through our hands day after day, and we relinquish control of them day after day. This is because we do not understand money; or, more importantly, we do not understand economy.
The Roman Poet Virgil wrote The Georgics in 29 BC. The concept of “Georgics” that came out of this poem was widely debated and discussed in the founding era of our country. The word basically means “to work the land.”
In early spring-tide, when the icy drip
Melts from the mountains hoar, and Zephyr’s breath
Unbinds the crumbling clod, even then ’tis time;
Press deep your plough behind the groaning ox,
And teach the furrow-burnished share to shine.
That land the craving farmer’s prayer fulfils,
Which twice the sunshine, twice the frost has felt;
Ay, that’s the land whose boundless harvest-crops
Burst, see! the barns.
It was felt by many of our Founders that this connection to the land, to hard work, and the dependence on God that is pre-supposed when seeds are planted, had a profound effect of building an independent and free people — especially when coupled with the other Foundations of Freedom.
Up until 100 years ago, 97% of Americans worked the land with plows — they were farmers. Short of a massive catastrophe, that isn’t going to happen in our time. What can be done in our day to bring the Family Farm — or at least its principles — back to life?
We must first understand Georgics. In the coming weeks I will be posting several articles outlining the basic tenets of Georgic Economics, with links to sites where you can learn how to establish a rebirth of freedom in your family through Georgic principles and forms.
American families must become independent centers of the U.S. economy if our liberties are to be preserved. I am calling for a regeneration of organic, financial systems centered in and controlled by America’s families.
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Top 10 Things Napoleon Dynamite Has To Say About America
July 22, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 4 Comments
Turns out that Napoleon Dynamite is quite the educated man and patriot and he has a lot to say about the state of America. He also has a flippin’ eloquent way of expressing his sweet views. Enjoy!
10. “America used to have sweet skills, like manufacturing and production skills, freedom skills, virtue skills…but now we have like a buttload of problems and that’s why our dollar isn’t hardly worth anything. Investors only want countries with sweet skills. We’re freakin’ IDIOTS!”
9. “Neo-cons have pretty much the worst foreign policy EVER. Those guys are retarded!”
8. “Pretty much all anyone has to do to get elected anymore is to tell the people that if they vote for them all of their wildest dreams will come true. The people don’t want to do flipping anything for themselves!”
7. “What the heck are judges and legislators doing to homeschoolers — trying to ruin everyone’s lives and make them look like freakin’ idiots?”
6. “I turned out so good ’cause I have a sweet family. Everyone would have more of a killer time if we took better care of the family.”
5. “Can you ask my grandma to bring me some money? My bank account hurts real bad from all this flippin’ inflation! I asked the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for help but they don’t know anything.”
4. “The day we passed the 17th Amendment was pretty much the worst day of America’s life, what do you think?! GOSH! Where were all the smart legislators that day — staying home and eating all the flippin’ chips?”
3. “My favorite form of government is a constitutional republic. It’s like a monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy mixed…bred for its skills and checks and balances. Democracy is the worst form of government EVER!”
2. “I’d vote for Pedro before any of the decroded piece of crap candidates we have right now.”
And the number one thing that Napoleon Dynamite has to say about America is… Read more
Question #10: What are the connections between liberty and property?
July 12, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 2 Comments
| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | Question #4 | Question #5 | Question #6 | Question #7 | Question #8 | Question #9 |
“…power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.” -Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper #79
A malignant idea exists in socialistic thought that societies can have political freedom with limited economic freedom. More precisely, this dangerous idea is that political and economic freedom are separate and distinct freedoms and that one can survive without the other.
Furthermore, in democratic socialism the theory is that wealth can be forcefully redistributed through the government, or in other words that society has a right to the economic labor of all individuals. At the heart of this destructive ideology is that economic freedom is unnecessary and that a society can still be free without it. Europe has embraced this ideology to a large extent, and America is not that far behind.
However, there is an inseparable connection between liberty and property, a connection that, if severed, leads to the loss of both liberty and private property.
Why It Matters
It is your unalienable right to work, to labor, and to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Freedom means the ability to control your destiny through your own effort–if the government takes the fruit of your labor (your property) for anything other than taxes to support its proper role, it reduces your ability to create the life of your choice.
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is no force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist.” -John Adams
Furthermore, property is a tool to express your unique contribution to the world. Bill Gates shares his vision and business skills by creating computers. Ray Kroc shared his drive and innovation through real estate and hamburgers. Without private property rights, these men and others like them would have no outlet to express their individuality. If a person wishes to pursue their happiness by creating a business, that happiness will be deterred if they do not have access to create a physical manifestation of the business through property.
John Locke wrote extensively about this topic in his Second Treatise on Government. He wrote, “[E]very man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it that excludes the common right of other men. For this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer; no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to….
“He that is nourished by the acorns he picked up under an oak, or the apples he gathered from the trees in the wood, has certainly appropriated them to himself. Nobody can deny but the nourishment is his. I ask then when did they begin to be his? And ’tis plain, if the first gathering made them not his, nothing else could. That labour put a distinction between them and common. That added something to them more than nature, the common mother of all, had done: and so they become his private right. And will any one say he had no right to those acorns or apples he thus appropriated, because he had not the consent of all mankind to make them his? … If such a consent as that was necessary man had starved, notwithstanding the plenty God had given him. We see in commons, which remain so by compact, that ’tis the taking part of what is common, and removing it out of the state Nature leaves it in, which begins the property; without which the common is of no use.”
Without economic freedom all other freedoms are obsolete. With freedom comes the responsibility to use your hands, your mind, and your strength to care for yourself, to provide you and your family with economic necessities and desires. With responsibility comes opportunity to create your own destiny. Unless your private property rights are protected your ability to determine your life is severely limited.
Recommended Reading:
The Mainspring of Human Progress by H.G. Weaver
The Virginian by Owen Wister
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Question #9: What are the seven major societal forms, or institutions, and what are the roles of each?
July 7, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | Question #4 | Question #5 | Question #6 | Question #7 | Question #8 |
The seven major societal institutions are family, community, religion, academia, business, media, and government.
Family
The role of the family is to ensure responsible citizens, preserve society, and balance the desires of individual liberty with the demands of community responsibility. As James C. Ure, professor at George Wythe College, has written, “The family is the bubble in which a child…feels safe enough to explore his individuality. It is also the first place a child learns to make personal sacrifices for the good of the whole. In the family, it is natural for a parent to expose a child to various activities or ideas to determine what unique interests the child may have and to give the child an enhanced sense of self. It is also natural for a parent to ask a child to sacrifice personal interests to benefit the family, such as to provide help with cooking or cleaning. In the end, this is not very different from what makes free societies tick…It is in the family that children are expected to learn the core values and beliefs that democratic institutions later draw on to perpetuate themselves.”
Community
The original concept of federalism meant that as many decisions as possible were made at the lowest level possible. As Cleon Skousen taught, strong, local self-government was the keystone to the original American system. Understanding that power centralizes and expands, the Founders knew that the bulk of our political decisions should be made on the community level. The role of the community, therefore, is to prevent the centralization of power by keeping responsibility and decision-making close to the people.
Religion
John Adams wrote that, “Religion and virtue are are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.” George Washington affirmed, “Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” The role of religion is to remind republican citizens of their duties to and reliance upon God. Virtue is the bedrock of free society, and religion provides a constant reminder of that fact. Furthermore, religion serves as a venue where citizens serve God by serving their fellowman; philanthropy is enacted in large part through religion.
Academia
Academia advances culture through knowledge, helps to prevent socio-economic inequities, breaks through boundaries of human ignorance and fear, helps societies to avoid repeated historical mistakes, and serves as a check on the government by keeping citizens informed of civic affairs. As John Adams said, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people…They have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge–I mean, of the characters and conducts of their rulers.”
Business
The role of business is to provide exchange, commerce, and ultimately widespread prosperity. In a free market economy prices tend to decrease through competition and innovation, the ultimate benefactors being end consumers of products and services. In a free market economy poverty decreases, the standard of living rises, and people are able to find self-fulfillment as their subsistence needs are met. In The 5,000 Year Leap, Cleon Skousen wrote that, “By 1905 the U.S. had become the richest industrial nation in the world. With only five percent of the earth’s continental area and merely six percent of the world’s population, the American people were producing over half of almost everything–clothes, food, houses, transportation, communications, even luxuries.” The occurred because of our free market economy, where business was left free to fulfill its role.
Media
The role of the media is to disseminate information, highlight important current events, and to essentially stand as a witness, an observer of cultural, political, community, and educational events. A healthy media provides a check on the government and increases the political astuteness of republican citizens.
Government
The role of government is to protect unalienable rights. Government is the institutionalization of force, and as such should not do anything that would not be right for an individual to do (such as steal). As Thomas Jefferson said, “…a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”
Why It Matters
Freedom occurs when all seven of these societal institutions are Read more
Question #8: What is the fundamental character of human beings?
July 5, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 1 Comment
| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | Question #4 | Question #5 | Question #6 | Question #7 |
“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it… The foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people. The noblest principles and most generous affections in our nature, then, have the fairest chance to support the noblest and most generous models of government.” - John Adams in Thoughts on Government
At the core of political philosophy and constitutional government is the issue of human nature; we can’t know how to govern unless we fully understand whom is being governed. Designing and managing a polity must take into consideration who human beings are, how and why they act, and how to best promote their happiness.
Human nature is composed of two things: 1) motivations, and 2) tendencies.
Human Motivation
The brilliant Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises formulated a methodology for understanding human action that he called “praxeology.” Mises deduced fifty laws of human action, which include the following highlights:
- Choice determines all human action.
- Human action is purposeful; people make choices for reasons.
- Action is the attempt to change the state of being for a more satisfactory state.
- No person does anything except what they think will improve their satisfaction.
The core of Mises’ laws is that we act to increase our satisfaction. From getting up from the couch to get a soda, to going to church, to perpetrating violent crime, every human action is designed to bring the actor more satisfaction than he or she currently feels.
A well-designed body politic, then, will allow its citizens to seek and gain satisfaction in any way they see fit, as long as they do not encroach upon the unalienable rights of others. As the Roman statesman Cato said, “By liberty, I understand the power which every man has over his own actions, and his right to enjoy the fruit of his labor, art, and industry, as far as by it he hurts not the society or any members of it, by taking from any member or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys.”
Human Tendencies
Are human beings good, or evil? Are we fallen beings, or are we enlightened beings of light and love? Do we seek depravity, or degeneracy?
Yes.
It seems like most philosophers have held the either/or view of human nature; some say we are good, and some say we are bad. It seems clear to me that we are both, that inherent to every individual is the potential for divinity and degeneracy.
Why It Matters
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