Fighting Big Gummint with Something Better

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.