Fighting
Big Gummint with Something Better
You
have probably heard the adage, “you can’t fight something with nothing.” Old adages
happen to be true, like this one.
I
have been opposed to Big Gummint for years, and for varied reasons. The tax
burden I and every other American bear was one of the big reasons I opposed Big
Gummint and I could list many others. Many of the reasons were economic and
some were moral, but beyond asking for the elimination of Federal, three letter agencies,
I didn’t have something else to put in its place.
Just this week I read Gary North’s explanation of The Freeman, a magazine that was published by the Foundation for
Economic Education, where he outlined the philosophy of the magazine and the
Foundation. Leonard E. Read, the head of the foundation called it the freedom
philosophy.
This
was the first time in decades that I have heard in the conservative movement what can be
described as that something with which to oppose Big Gummint.
Read
did not see the freedom philosophy as simply anti-government. He saw it as a
defense of a society in which individual liberty would unleash the creative
forces that are necessary to build a better society. He always emphasized the
positive message. He always fought big civil government on this basis:
individual creativity is the basis of progress, not the negative sanctions of civil
government, and surely not the imitation positive sanctions of civil
government. He and the many authors who contributed to the magazine constantly
returned to this theme: the civil government is able to bestow benefits on some
people only because it has extracted wealth from other people. The state is not
a source of net positive sanctions. It is at best a source of restraints on
violence and fraud.
Gary North continues:
It is not good enough to be anti-. You have to have some idea of what
should replace the system created by the forefathers of today's bad guys
This is a theme that I would like to build on. More from Gary:
It is not good enough to diagnose a problem. You have to suggest a
cure. Otherwise, people are not going to pay attention to your
diagnosis. It is easier to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we
die.
You can't beat something with nothing.
In every philosophical system, there is a pro and a con. There is a
benefit and a liability. There is something to be attained and something
to be avoided. There are positive sanctions and negative sanctions.
There are carrots and sticks. Christianity teaches about heaven and hell.
Let's replace Big Gummint with individual liberty and creativity and let the positive and negative sanctions that are part of reality have full sway.
