Liberty vs. Equality
Statist politicians — which means essentially all of them — believe or claim to believe they can legislate equality. As long as there have been governments, politicians have been dividing people into groups in order to pit them against each another as they squabble for government handouts, favors and special privileges all the while claiming they want equality.
Government panders to these groups, granting them a special status as minorities and providing them with extravagant subsidies. Minorities respond because they are conditioned to do so. Subsidies and racism and every form "otherism" are subtle forms of economic warfare between the middle class and minorities. All is a masquerade for the benefit of a wicked political system. This Machiavellian strategy divides the masses and provides cover for the government crime syndicate.
Since at least the 1970s, Washington congressweasels have been promoting the shibboleth that if one group or the other has a perceived disadvantage in outcomes, then government must step in to ensure that everyone attains equal results.
The politicians and government men believe, or claim to believe, that if all of their "groups" don't have equal outcomes then something other than hard work, intelligence and seizing opportunities presented must be culpable. It needs bugbears to blame, and chief among them is "discrimination."The doctrine of equality and fraternity as a doctrine of liberty, as promoted during the French Revolution and as pushed by the government today, is a myth, a fiction and a self-evident contradiction. It is impossible to have liberty and equality. Yet, the unthinking masses still today accept this as the foundation of American democracy. On the contrary, the concept of human equality is basic to the destruction of human liberty.
Equality is the organism of racism and "otherism" as promoted by the government. Its purpose is the opposite of human liberty. It is the systematic subversion of human liberty. Further and deeper conclusions are that when we hold two contradictory thoughts such as liberty and equality, the result is double mindedness and unstable thinking (see James 1:8; "... a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.") leading to greater receptivity to the power of suggestion.
The closer we come to total acceptance of the doctrine of human equality, the closer we come to slavery. In reality, human equality is an impossibility in the real world. As an instrument of government propaganda, it is the perfect organism.
Politicians and government men will tell you that if they can only end discrimination, then everyone would have equality.
Democrats are now advancing a bill called the Equality Act. As with all government bills, this one does the exact opposite of what it claims.It would modify existing civil rights legislation to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit. It would also essentially rescind the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and require Christian churches and organizations to accommodate the mental illness and debauchery of the LGBQT crowd in their wickedness and the transgender crowd in their mental illness — a blatant assault on religious liberty.
Whenever a group or class of people is given special "rights" (which aren't really rights, but privileges), the real natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are turned on their ears and shoved down the memory hole. In other words, the rights of the one are secondary to the "rights" of the other simply because one subgroup of individuals has been granted special privileges that never before existed.
The freedom to discriminate is essential to liberty. It is not the role of government to determine which discrimination is acceptable and which is not — or to enforce its own form of discrimination to correct another. Though, historically, that is precisely what's occurred.
You discriminate every day of your life in everything you do.You discriminated when you chose your neighborhood and your house. You discriminated when you chose your job. You discriminated when you chose your church — or when you made the decision to not attend church at all.
You discriminate when you choose your friends. You discriminate when you choose your doctor (or did before Obamacare), your barber, your travel agent. You discriminate when you choose your insurance agent, your auto repair shop, your in-home security monitor, your pest-control service.
You discriminate when you choose which movie to watch, which book to read, which electronic device to buy, which show to watch, which sporting team to follow. You discriminate in your choice of beer. You discriminate in your choice of car: American or foreign.
Life in a free country is about being free to make choices, choices based on your own criteria rather than one mandated by the state. Don't like fried chicken? Stay out of KFC. Don't like pizza? Avoid Pizza Hut. Don't care for seafood? Red Lobster isn't the only restaurant in town. Denny's gave you lousy service? Stay away… and tell your friends.
Don't like how Walmart compensates its workers? Buy your cheap Chinese junk from Target or Kmart — or the local mom and pop store — and your groceries from Publix or Kroger.
Don't like it that Chick-fil-A's president supports traditional marriage? Buy your chicken sandwich from Burger King. They've gone all in on "gay pride." Don't like that HGTV's Chip and Joanna Gaines attend a church that defends traditional marriage? Change your channel. There are probably 175 more on your dial.
Don't like Muslims? Stay out of the Middle East, mosques, Louis Farrakhan rallies and U.S. prisons — and Deerbornistan, Michigan. Don't like Jews? Stay out of Israel, New York (especially the diamond district), Massachusetts, California and synagogues.Don't like kids? Avoid day cares, schools and playgrounds. And don't have unprotected sex.
Don't like blacks? Move to Montana, Vermont or Idaho. There aren't many there.Don't like whites? Move to Detroit; Jackson, Mississippi; Miami Gardens, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Baltimore; or Memphis, Tennessee. You will see some, but they'll be the minority.
That's discrimination. It's also called liberty, freedom of choice and, in the concept of natural law, freedom of association as guaranteed in the 1st Amendment.
Of course, America's no longer free. It just has the trappings and name of a free country.
Yours for the truth,
Bob Livingston
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter™
H/T to James in Columbus
You can't teach an old lib new tricks.
ReplyDeleteRight you are Odie! I thought it was a very good "essay", but I also know the left refuses to listen to reason or logic and most have sold their souls years ago. The younger ones are lining up to take the blind leap into the socialist/commie abyss.The propagandist in the fifth column have done their jobs well and insured that this class is completely ignorant of true history. What these useful idiots do not realize is that under a totalitarian regime only a privileged few have the luxury of a safety net. The majority of those do not have sense enough to know that they will never belong to that club and may end up kneeling in ditch waiting to receive their "brown hole" to the back of the head.
ReplyDeleteVonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" should be required reading in high school. It is a wicked satire on the belief that "equality" is possible, let alone can be created. I wonder what Kurt would be saying now, if he was alive to see government trying to force "equality" on the rest of us. https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt
ReplyDeleteDisagree. The two are not polar opposites. Agree that government uses this as a lever to steal ever more power for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe error with the equality concept it writes about is the confusing of "equality" with "equality of outcome"; an ongoing co-opting of the original term by the Left. The two are completely different. Harrison Bergeron was equality of outcome.
Real equality - that you won't be treated any differently, legally or (perhaps) socially, because of your gender, size, age, color, beliefs, physical differences, attractiveness, etc - is entirely compatible with liberty. That compatibility was put succinctly in Rev King's "I have a dream" speech long ago. People can learn to look past all those things, and making decisions (discrimination!!) based on their perception of the person (content of character), not the person's characteristics.
Equal treatment and equal opportunity are one thing. Equal outcome is a narcissistic leftist fantasy.
Civilized behavior is the blend of both liberty and equality, iced over with honestly, respect, some tact and patience. And a big dose of the Golden Rule, and the ancient harmonious rules of living that we "moderns" call Christian behavior.
In the United States we have attempted to create political equality. The Declaration of Independence is a political document which recognized the right of each individual to pursue rational self-interest. We have a Rule of Law, with a Common Law. This is based on a theory of Natural Law, which attempts to discover in our inherent or acquired nature, i.e., our identity, appropriate human relationships. Note that the concept of political equality is artificial, i.e., man-made.
ReplyDeleteWe are individuals, primarily to be self-governed. Each adult citizen is given one vote, and an obligation to participate in the collective government, the sole purpose of which is to protect us from the irrationality of others. We reject majority rule, which is the arbitrary rule of men.
We are rational animals, and recognize the obligation to deal with others by mutual consent, to mutual advantage. Therefore, we outlawed the initiation of force or fraud. We also have something else, social freedom and political liberty, to create individual lifestyles, which result in the differences of human inequality. We are each endowed with Free Will. Mentally we are created "tabula rasa," therefore we must create our personalities.
We have a right to become unique and to become unequal in many significant respects. It is not wrong to strive for constant self-improvement or to achieve personal improvement. It’s not wrong to be better than others.
We are not biologically equal, nor mentally equal, nor morally equal, nor financially equal, nor ethically should we impose this kind of equality, this bland sameness, on members of society. Each individual must create their own personality, based on circumstances, which are not equal, and on individual effort and choice. Pursuit of objective values is a virtue. Don't confuse equality with justice. As Aristotle said, "The worse kind of inequality results from trying to make unequal things equal."