“It is our traditional belief that man was given liberty to ennoble him. We may infer that those who would take his liberty away have the opposite purpose of degrading him…. Now we are at the point where regimentation, which used to be suggested with apologies, comes couched in the language of prerogative. The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject the favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not be long be found at all.”
Richard Weaver — American Social / Political Philosopher
Here we find part of the reason that those who reject statism have such a difficult time in persuading others. Statists come to us in honey and sweetness. Those who are part of that system that just wants to ‘care for us’ are just trying to be ‘nice.’ This damn niceness is going to kill us all. It is exactly that observation, and the way it is stated, that causes others to recoil at those who are anti-Statists. Anti-statists reject the niceness of the government ‘help,’ and that rejection is seen as ‘not-nice,’ hostile, belligerent, and even mean-spirited. Those who are for the freedom that Weaver mentions are those who resist, reject, and who actively push away those Statists who advertise themselves as just trying to ‘care for people.’ The problem with the caring State, of course, is that, over time, it exponentially, discovers more and more reasons that people need to be cared for, thus perpetuating and increasing people’s need for the State’s care. The problem with the caring State is that it knows that once people get a taste for being cared for the invalid class will perpetually vote for their caretakers and against those who believe that people should be responsible to take care of themselves. The problem with the caring State is that it can only take on the burden for all this increased creative caring by increased destructive stealing. The problem with the caring State is that it knows what it is doing and what it is doing isn’t offering help but rather it is degrading men by making them slaves. And eventually all this caring is done more for the administrators then it is for the patients.
Those who see this agenda then react violently, and those who don’t see this agenda can only see the violent reaction and wonder at why these pro-Freedom people are so mean. Well, let me try to explain. The reason we are so ‘mean’ is that we love you. We understand that the more you let the State care for you the more what makes you noble is going to atrophy. We understand that all this caring is going to suffocate your humanity. We understand that ‘he who takes the King’s coin is the King’s man,’ and we’d kind of like to think you’d like to be your own man, beholden to nobody but Christ.
And being mean, and being free, we don’t like going silently into the night. So, put up with our dire warnings just a little longer. It will be soon enough and our breed will die out and you can go back to your velvet chains, and lick spittle obedience.
Henry,
Thanks for stopping by! Your comments are ALWAYS highly valued.
I hope that Knox, and Rutherford and Turretin, and others are more than spinning. I hope they are trying to find a way to come back like Samuel came back to denounce Saul. There are some very bright influential people in Reformedom who would only take somebody coming back for the dead’s remonstration seriously.
And then only maybe.
Prayer for the Reformed Church. If it goes belly up the jig is up until God decides to raise it up again.
Oh God, in wrath, remember mercy,
Bret
Interesting insight. The slow movement toward fascism, the lulling to sleep reminds me a bit of the Nazis lulling people to sleep in the 1930s. Britain wanted to stay “nice.”
I think that most of the big government people actually believe that what they’re doing is the right thing. They are the compassionate ones. They are the defenders of the have-nots. Getting elected again and again only enforces to them that what they are doing is morally right.
Glen Beck was saying yesterday that during the Hoover administration there was a big flood in a southern state. The Federal government decided to send some people down to help out (sort of the beginning of FEMA I guess). When these Feds arrived, the people in the state were outraged. “Who do you think you are getting into our business!!! Go back to Washington!!!” It’s striking how the mindset of the nation could change so drastically in just 80 years.
My pastoral care professor in seminary said that we pastors alwasy needed to be aware of our own sense of entitlement and reject it. He warned that people would meet us in our new churches with goodies and dinners; that people would take us out to restaurants and give us Christmas gifts – even cash. He warned us that business people in our churches would give us discounts on for example car repairs. And he warned us that we would destroy our relationships with these people if we developed a sense of entitlement.
Entitlement is a huge problem today in this courntry. The analogy doesn’t work very well though as it relates to politicians and government. My church members don’t need my votes. If they are disgusted with my entitlement; they can simply let me know and withhold their personal gifts. Our politicians need our votes. Whether or not they think people’s sense of entitlement is disgusting, they are going to keep handing out the goodies. They need to give those goodies or else people will vote in someone else who will give the goodies. Thus we have something called “Compassionate Conservatism” a.k.a. “Big government conservatism”
What is so intriguing is we have so many wealthy people who vote for and promote big government because it’s thought to be compassionate.
Nathan
Nathan,
I agree. The insights from your Seminary Pastor are also quite helpful.
I would only add that the reason big business supports big government is that it works in their financial favor.
I mean it when I say I’m thankful for your participation.
Bret
What good fortune to be alive during the dependency back to bondage age… especially when one is a fire eating lover of liberty.
Great Quote Brother Henry,
Bret
Frank: Sweet sentiments but, God’s history is linear, not circular. They may appear circular because our depraved nature refuses to live under God’s Law, inviting the same cycle of judgment upon our autonomous reasoning. America’s failure to heed Ron Paul’s call to live under the constitution will bring the swift boot of judgment.
James,
Thanks for stopping by.
Of course all of us, being Christians here, would whole heartedly agree that history is linear. Henry’s quote observe not a cyclical views of history in a macro sense but a understanding of how a particular system (Democracy) works. So unless one believes that God will bring in the post-millennial Kingdom by way of Democracy I think the quote has some teeth.
Thanks again for reminding us that cyclical views of history are pagan.
Bret