Question #6: What is more important–culture, or politics and government?
June 21, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | Question #4 | Question #5 |
“To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” -Confucius
Although this is certainly debatable, it seems clear, when considering the four foundations of freedom, that culture is far more important than politics and government.
What I mean by culture is the social patterns, activities, mores, customs, belief systems, and sense of morality inherent to a society. It’s how the people at large behave in the absence of force. It’s how they view each other and their place in society and how they interact with one another.
In other words, in an aristocratic culture, poor members of society are unlikely to consider that they have the opportunity to attain a higher social status. In social democracies or meritocracies, however, individuals understand that they have the opportunity to be mobile in their social status. (And remember that there is a fundamental difference between a social democracy and a governmental democracy.)
Politics refers to how members of society make group decisions, and government is the institutionalization of force, or the way that political decisions are enforced.
Why It Matters
Although there is some overlap, morality is mainly the purview of culture. So if a nation has a government that stays within its proper realm–to protect unalienable rights–yet voluntary virtue is required to sustain this arrangement, then culture is far more important than its system of government.
By the way, it’s important to define morality, since there’s a tendency to think of morality only in terms of sexual purity. However, by morality I’m referring to a holistic sense of the word, a morality that includes far more than sexuality, including philanthropy, providence (or living up to one’s full potential and doing what they were born to do), personal responsibility, and stewardship.
Another way to explain the preeminence of culture of politics and government is through the principle of voluntarism, which states that the health of a society is equal to what individuals will do voluntarily without the force or assistance of the government.
James Madison explained this concept well in Federalist Paper #51. He wrote, “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.”
In other words, he says that the primary way to preserve the society is through virtue in the people, but auxiliary precautions are also necessary, auxiliary precautions being the form of government.
For far too long, we’ve both depended on the government to do things we should be doing as private citizens in the realm of culture, and then blamed them when things go wrong.
It’s time for America to realize that our voluntary culture, or how we act in the absence of government, is far more important than anything the government does, since the government is nothing but a collective reflection of our private lives anyway.
Focus less on changing the government, and focus more on creating a family culture that makes illegitimate government functions unnecessary.
Recommended Reading:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Giver by Lois Lowry
1984 by George Orwell
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.
Email This Post
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Question #5: What are the four foundations of freedom?
June 16, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | Question #4 |
The Four Foundations of Freedom are:
- Private Virtue
- Public Virtue
- Widespread Education
- Auxiliary Precautions
The Founders consistently taught that, in the absence of these foundations, no society can survive, or at least maintain its freedom.
Private virtue means being a person of integrity; being honest in your dealings with others, being faithful in your duties to your family, controlling your appetites, etc.
Public virtue means to voluntarily sacrifice personal benefit for the good of society. For example, George Washington served two terms as President even when, as he was accepting the post, he wrote that it “would be the greatest sacrifice of my personal feelings and wishes that ever I have been called upon to make.”
Contrary to our modern conception of education, widespread education to the Founders didn’t mean job training; it meant classical, liberal education designed to teach individuals how to think, not what to think (see A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille).
And finally, auxiliary precautions are a society’s forms of government that ideally protect life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Auxiliary precautions include Legitimate Foundation, Legitimate Authority, Legitimate Role, Separation of Powers, Checks, Balances, Federalism, Written Constitution, Enumerated Limited Powers, Periodic Elections, Electoral College, and Factionalization.
Why It Matters
What matters most about the four foundations is their order of importance. The Founders understood that no free government, however enlightened, can survive unless the people that it governs are moral and virtuous.
Constitutional government is nothing but words on paper unless its principles are alive in the souls of the people; free nations get the government that they deserve. When a free people fails to internalize and exhibit public and private virtue, no government on earth can keep them from destroying themselves. On the other hand, people who cultivate and maintain virtue and value their principles above their privileges enjoy unlimited prosperity, peace, and happiness.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
James Madison added, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
In a free government, the People get the government that they deserve. The only way to maintain freedom is to maintain private and public virtue. This leads to the next question…
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.
Email This Post
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Many Have Died For It; Our Duty is to Live For It
January 25, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
One of the best examples of public virtue in the Revolutionary War period was John Hart. He was a farmer, known throughout his state as “Honest John Hart.” He served with distinction in the pre-Revolutionary legislatures of New Jersey, and was one of the first to recognize the tyranny of the Stamp Act. During the enemy invasion of New Jersey, Hart was besieged in his farmhouse. His wife lay dying at the time, and he refused to leave her. After her death he managed to make his escape at the age of 65, and for a year was hunted through the woods, where he existed as an exile and fugitive, eluding every effort of his pursuers, hiding in caves. Hessian mercenaries destroyed his farm, livestock, mills, and property. An old man, he never lost his spirit, and joined Washington’s army as a private after the battle of Princeton. He died at the age of 68, having given his life, liberty, wife, and property to the cause of freedom.
Unlike the John Hart, most of us will probably not have to suffer so much and die defending freedom. However, our duty is perhaps more difficult: to live a life of virtue, courage, and contribution in the midst of relative ease and prosperity. There are many who claim that they would die for their freedom, yet they fail to live for it on a consistent basis. Our average voting percentage for presidential elections is barely over 50%, and between 1960 and 1990, America saw a 560% increase in violent crime, a 419% increase in illegitimate births, a quadrupling of divorce rates, a tripling of the percentage of children living in single-parent homes, more than a 200% increase in teenage suicides, and a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores (see full report here).
Many of our ancestors displayed their virtue by dying for the cause of freedom; we must show ours by living the cause daily.
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.
Email This Post
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Gandhi’s Integrity
January 25, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
Freemen must be men and women of integrity. Integrity means that what you know to be true is integrated with how you act. It is doing what you say you will do and being who you know you can and should be.
The great leader Gandhi was once approached by a mother who wanted him to have a few words with her son. The boy was eating too much sugar and it was harming his teeth and diet. When the mother asked Gandhi to talk to her son he replied, “I cannot tell him that. But you may bring him back in a month.” Obviously the woman was discouraged because of all the travel involved to see Gandhi and what she felt should have been a simple answer to a simple request to support her parenting skills. However, one month later she returned with her son. Gandhi tenderly held the boy’s hands and told him to not eat sugar because it was harmful to his health. The mother was pleased but perplexed. She asked him why he had not simply said this to the boy a month earlier during her first visit. Gandhi replied, “Well, a month ago, I was still eating sugar.”
Gandhi was a powerful example of integrity. He was unwilling to correct someone for a weakness while he still had the same weakness. By overcoming the weakness himself, he would not have been a hypocrite by correcting another.
Suggested reading: Gandhi: An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth
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.
Email This Post
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
How can you determine your integrity?
January 25, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · Leave a Comment
Anyone can display integrity in public, when many others view what they do and say. However, 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. Private virtue is not a function of what others think of you; it is a function of what you do regardless of what others around you think or do.
Through private virtue, we become anchored upon the core truths that determine both our individual characters, as well as the shape of our civilization. In the absence of private virtue, we are left with nothing but legality to protect us from each other, which legality soon becomes obsolete, favoritist, and an instrument of tyranny as the people degenerate.
How every individual lives their life privately determines our success or failure as a nation. What are you contributing to civilization when no one is around to see?
Suggested Reading: A World Split Apart by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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.
Email This Post
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
-
Free Newsletter Subscription
Subscribe to The Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and receive two free gifts. Your personal information will never be shared.
Subscribe To The Cause Of LibertyPolls
Loading ... Loading ... Loading ...