The Cause of Liberty

Before I give my answers to the questions in my last post, let me explain why I ask them.

In creating them, my thought process was to identify the foundational premises for the main competing views in political philosophy. The answers to each of these questions boil all of the political issues down to the roots of why and how different people develop their political views. By knowing these base premises, one is able to understand where others are coming from and be more persuasive in the fight for liberty.

In other words, knowing the answers to these ten questions will help you cut through peripheral issues and strike at the heart of political arguments that are eroding America’s freedom. The answers provide a foundation of political philosophy that, when understood by enough Americans, will restore our Republic.

Beware the Boredom Factor!

Let’s be honest with each other–political philosophy is boring (unless you’re a geek like me). Discussing these questions will not be exciting, sexy, or entertaining.

Understanding these ten questions and knowing the answers to them, however, is absolutely vital if we wish to preserve freedom for ourselves and our posterity. As boring as it may be, without this knowledge we cannot and will not survive as a free nation.

So what will it be for you: entertainment or freedom?

Now, on to the questions…

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Written By Stephen Palmer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Do you know why the following questions matter? Can you list at least three sources of opposing views on the answers?

Read the questions then answer them by commenting below.

1. What is the source of man’s rights?

2. What are the differences between unalienable and civil rights?

3. What is the proper role of government?

4. What is the American form of government?

5. What are the four foundations of freedom, according to the American Founders?

6. What is more important–culture, or politics and government?

7. What are “legitimate foundation” and “legitimate authority” in political philosophy?

8. What is the fundamental character of human beings?

9. What are the seven major societal forms, or institutions, and what are the roles of each?

10. What are the connections between liberty and property?

Share your answers by commenting below.

Bonus Question: What is the significance of the picture I used on this post?

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Written By Stephen Palmer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

If you were left wondering whether you should laugh or cry after reading my last post, you got the point.

America really is at a crossroads, a momentous point in history infinitely more critical than anything Rome, Greece, or the ancient Israelites ever faced because of how much our decisions impact the rest of humanity.

However, I’m an optimist at heart and believe that Americans can and will conquer any challenge, no matter how difficult or even if it is self-imposed. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “It is a part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate, to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.”

With this in mind, I wish to transcend the gloomy picture painted in my last post and offer the ten most important things that average Americans can do to ensure that our current decline doesn’t engulf us and last interminably.

10. Read at least one classic a month.

According to George Wythe College, “Classics are original works of depth and substance–writing, painting, sculpture, philosophy, music, theory, law, etc.–that engage the student in the great questions of life. Works that have wide application and scope, they offer valuable ideas to a variety of cultures and times, and can be applied to nations as well as communities, families and individuals. These timeless works change us and ask the hard questions that cut to the core of human nature and human institutions.”

Study the nature and anatomy of freedom through classics. Learn what it takes to preserve and promote freedom for yourself and your posterity.

9. Discuss the classics you read with groups of your peers on a regular basis.

Similar groups were formed long before the American Revolution erupted, and they had an integral role in shaping the views and direction of the entire populace. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

8. Keep entertainment in proper perspective.

We’re flooded with an infinite variety of ways to divert us from our highest potential and purpose. When entertainment becomes excessive, it prevents us from living the ideals necessary to sustain freedom.

7. Raise a family worth emulating.

Love and serve your family. Be true to your spouse, be kind and inspiring to and patient with your children. Take responsibility for the education of your children. Build America from the inside out with the solid bricks of family values and relationships.

6. Forgive those who have wronged you.

World peace will never be achieved until individuals become conscious of their own contribution to or detraction from that goal.

5. Be a person of integrity.

Keep your word, no matter how difficult, no matter how tempting it may be to follow the crowd and become casual. Do what you say you will do. Live what you say you believe.

4. Be vigilant about how you spend your private time.

As I have written elsewhere, “The ultimate measure of a person’s integrity is how they act when they are absolutely alone, and what they do when no one else will ever know. It is the quiet moments spent in solitude that determine if you are true to what you say you believe in.”

3. Become a constitutional scholar.

Know the Constitution backward and forward. Study its foundations. Study the works that its creators read. Learn what habeas corpus, bills of attainder, and ex post facto laws are. Learn what the different branches of government are authorized to do, and prohibited from doing. Know the intended balance between the States and the Federal Government.

2. Live your mission.

Discover, develop, and utilize your natural gifts and abilities. Do what you were born to do, even if it takes quitting your current job. Live the spirit of providence in your life. In the words of Steve Farber, “Do what you love in the service of those who love what you do.”

And the number one way to lead an American Renaissance is… Continue reading »

An Unlikely Combination, Amazing Results

A friend once flattered my brother and me by commenting that we were “salt of the earth” people. When he asked about the environment in which we were raised relative to his compliment, I said the first thing that came to my mind: I told him that we were raised in a salty environment.

It was just a joke at the time, but little did I know how much I would learn about salt and how it relates to families as a result.

The compliment was, of course, referring to the words spoken by the master teacher Jesus Christ who said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?” Christ also makes a strange request in the book of Mark, where he directs his disciples to “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”

These phrases and the conversation with my friend led me to research salt, with the purpose to answer the following questions: What are the qualities of salt that lend themselves to Christ’s parables? Why should we become like salt? And most importantly, what can… Continue reading »

I can’t believe all you homeschoolers out there who think you can just teach your children anything you want. And without official, state-sponsored credentials, as unbelievable as that sounds.

It’s time you all woke up and realized that you’re just a bunch of petty felons, selfish reprobates unwilling to sacrifice your lives and your children to the safekeeping of a benevolent and omniscient government.

Luckily, we have sensible and caring judges to put you in your place. On February 28th of this year, Justice H. Walter Croskey and two of his colleagues thankfully declared homeschooling to be a crime in California.

“Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” wrote Croskey in an opinion signed by two other members of the district court. “Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program.”

The decision quotes this statement from a California court case in 1961:

A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure heaving a sigh of relief now that that’s taken care of. Frankly, I don’t know how we’ve lasted so long with thousands of homeschoolers running rampant. Maybe that explains the drastic increases in teenage suicide, violence, and drug abuse.

And to think that all this time you thought you were homeschooling to benefit society. Silly homeschooling parents, education is for those with credentials (and lots of big guns).

Click here to read the full text of this astounding article.

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Written By Stephen Palmer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Overcoming Self-Deception Through the Study of History

I am Rome, and Rome is me. I am Greece, and Greece is me. I have in me the best of humanity, and the worst of humanity, as we all do. I am Aurelius and Caligula. I am Socrates; I am also and the mob that murdered Socrates without legitimate cause. I am a Stoic and an Epicurean. I am the Enlightenment, and I am the Dark Ages.

I, like every individual human being, embody every aspect of human nature–for good or for evil–that has been displayed throughout history.

History is the study of human nature, the museum of human action that tells us less about the past than it tells us about ourselves as volitional beings. Santayana once said that, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This is so, not because we make mistakes because of forgetfulness, but because humans have a predictable, homogenous nature; our actions may be different from one another but we all act for the same reasons.

In other words, it’s not entirely precise to say that the purpose of studying history is to teach us about the past, in order that we might better navigate the future. More precisely, the purpose of studying history is to learn about ourselves as individual human beings. As historian David McCullough stated, “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

The more conscious we are of ourselves and of our nature the more capable we are of guiding and controlling that nature. History–our own and that of others–shows plainly that humans have a dual nature, and the struggle between Continue reading »

Do you know the roots of and reasons for your fears?

Paul Slovic, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, has spent decades studying how we decide what’s risky and what isn’t. His studies have shown that how risky something actually is has almost nothing to do with how risky we think it is. Slovic has demonstrated that people think skiing is safer than flying on a commercial aircraft, that smoking is less dangerous than being around handguns, that nuclear power plants are riskier than cars. Think about these questions: Do more Americans die of suicide or homicide? Which is more lethal, kidney disease or AIDS? According to the U.S. Government, in the year 2000 nearly twice as many people killed themselves as were murdered, and kidney diseases caused nearly three times as many deaths as AIDS. Although Americans consistently rate nuclear power as one of the most dangerous of all technologies, it’s actually safer by any objective measure than most other forms of power. And two of the deadliest things in America are cigarettes and cars; auto accidents alone kill an average of 115 Americans every day.

When we’re subject to fear our judgment is severely clouded and we make unwise decisions. Overcome fear through a commitment to continual education and persisting in courageous actions.

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In his revolutionary–yet timeless–book A Thomas Jefferson Education, Dr. Oliver DeMille outlines a method and principles of education used by the most powerful statesmen and stateswomen in all of history. Dr. DeMille shows that there are three basic methods of education, those being conveyor belt, technical training, and leadership education. Conveyor belt education is essentially what our public school system has become. It’s designed to give every person the same education, and to basically keep everyone at the same level. Conveyor belt education teaches what to think. Technical training is used for specialized skills and careers such as medicine, law, and accounting. Technical training teaches when to think. Leadership education is designed to build, as Dr. DeMille says, “men and women of virtue, wisdom, diplomacy and courage, who inspire greatness in others and move the cause of liberty.” Leadership training teaches how to think.

Leadership education is built on five pillars: classics, mentors, simulations, field experiences, and God. Virtually every great leader in history had all of these pillars as a significant part of his or her education.

To get a world-class education, immerse yourself in original classic books, find and utilize an appropriate mentor, practice situations to prepare you for “real” life, take part in internships and other experiences that give you valuable knowledge and experience in preparation for living your mission, and throughout the entire process, seek God’s guidance and direction to lead you to your mission.

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We live in a culture that, from birth, discourages making mistakes. However unintentional, our educational system is generally designed to make us believe that mistakes are bad and should be avoided at all cost. Yet the reality is that making mistakes can be the most effective way to learn, provided we have the right attitude and proper guidance from wise mentors.

It’s precisely by learning that certain things are painful that we learn to avoid or correct them. The more we shield ourselves and/or our children from making honest mistakes, the more we all are crippled by the fear of acting. Education should be the process of open and honest experimentation where people are free to make guided mistakes in order to learn from them.

You may not be able to change our entire educational system, but you can begin to reprogram your mind to see mistakes in a productive light. There’s no need to be naive and simple-minded about this by rushing out to make unnecessary, juvenile mistakes, but we must find mature ways to overcome fear if we are to truly achieve our highest potential.

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Good behavior is simply the application of good philosophy. Without sound philosophy, behavior will be inconsistent and unreliable as circumstances change. Furthermore, philosophy gives the moral justification for behavior, not just the practical reasons; without moral justification (a deep belief that our behavior is good based on principle), we will not persist in a behavior under strenuous circumstances; we will compromise when we feel it expedient.

Always strive to gain a deeper and more sure philosophical foundation through continual education. Read classics and discuss them with your peers and mentors, listen to books on tape, attend seminars–in short, do everything in your power to fill your mind with good information. The height and breadth of your happiness and prosperity are dependent on the depth of your education.

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