AGENDA 21 RADIO

Reaffirming Morality as the Foundation of Freedom and Society, Liberty and Government.

Throughout time, Professors, Political Theorists, Journalists, Editorialists, Bloggers, Writers and thinkers of all kinds have so confused and blurred the line between society and government they often no longer recognize the difference between the two themselves. In truth Society and Government are not only different entities, but they are birthed from two very different wombs. Society, is conceived in our common lust and wants, Government conceived by our inequities and singular wickedness.

Society seeks to promote happiness and cooperation by uniting our desires and affections. Government exists to restrain our vices and greed through negative response. Society creates a free flow of ideas, commerce, and cooperative exchange. Government creates separation, draws lines and boundaries. Society is a mentor, and nurturer. Government a punisher. Society is a boon and blessing in all its forms. Government, even at its best is evil necessitated by moral failings. At its worst Government is an intolerable evil, that exposes us to the miseries and uncertain order of tyranny. The great calamity of which, is we the people, are the creators of that which causes us to suffer.

Government, much like Adam’s fig leaf, represents lost innocence. It is a physical manifestation of man’s desire to seek justice, to force penance. Government is an evidentiary acknowledgment by man that he inherently knows right from wrong and that, that knowledge, blooms from an inborn, undeniable, common morality. It is a mutually consented, self-inflicted, attempt to right our wrongs, to balance the scale of our flaws.

The edifices of Government, whether the palaces of Kings, or the homes of Presidents, are built upon the backs of the people in varied state of servitude to their creation. Were the actions and impulses of man simple and pure, formed of clear conscience and unerringly obeyed, no lawgiver would be required. But alas, such is not the circumstances, so man finds it needful to surrender a portion of the fruits of his labors to protect the rest of his rightful gain from each other. When given the choice between two evils, man will always choose the lesser, in this instance, the voluntary surrender of a portion one’s property to pay for the illusion of protection, with the promise of punishment, rather than face the possible unwilful loss of prosperity through force.

To understand the construction and intent of government formed by man, let us choose the method of a parable;

If a man were to take upon himself to cast aside the public norm and seek Freedom of his own terms and relocated to a remote land claimed by none, ruled by nature alone, rapidly will the man realize how unsuited he is for his chosen environment.

The labor of one man is insufficient to meet even the basics for survival, let alone man’s appetite for comfort. He may find the resources to survive, materials for building he could not move, a foundation for shelter he cannot lay, sickness that alone he cannot fight, accident or attack that without help would leave him mortally wounded, all while the base needs of hunger, clothing, water, would keep him from other needs just a pressing to his survival. Co-operation and division of labor is as needful to a man as the air he breathes.

Nor is man a solitary creature and without social interaction, will fall into depression and insanity. Solitude will drive a man only to wish to perish, not flourish, and he will self-destruct, often in spectacular fashion. Hence it is a pre-gone conclusion that this refugee from society and the laws of government will seek others to share his new utopia, creating the process he sought to flee. Society is a natural and unavoidable symptom of the human condition, it is organic to mankind, and Government to maintain that society, just as organic.

Even a singular family unit, a mother, father and offspring, represent a society, their combined efforts sufficient to raise shelter, seek food and band together for mutual defense. Even here just below the surface you will find the veins of Government. Whether patriarchal or matriarchal, authority will flow from the trunk of the family to dictate the growth or stunting of its branches. Without the direction of morality, the tree itself will wither, its fruit bitter and poison to all who suckle from it for sustenance.

Even within this controlled experiment the rules of Government prove to be the roots of Society. Rules to define an individual’s responsibility, repercussions for failing to meet that quota, Society and Government are bound by physical nature as light is to dark, gravity to mass. Even though this fledgling Government, if moral, would certainly rest lightly out of family bonds and a desire to remain just to one’s own blood it’s rules and boundaries are unassailable if survival of the whole is to be expected. Yet, as none but God may claim perfection, even this small and well intentioned Governing body is susceptible to corruption. Through sloth, through emotion over logic, corruption of the moral will rot the roots.

Man, will become comfortable in his situation, will relax in his duty, and become remiss in following or enforcing the rules of Government intended to bind and secure society. Man, once difficulty is overcome, will forget the challenges that created the needful bonds that cemented his society in common cause in the first place. Such is the indisputable nature of man, here lies clearly exposed to the bone, the absolute need for moral purity and Governments need to correct man’s inherent moral defects.

Out of moral flaw will grow the roots of Government, the need for further rules and regulation to dictate behaviors, the need for a body to enforce and punish the violation of those rules, the apparatus to support the infrastructure of the Government, the apparatus to collect for and audit the actions of Government. From that immoral kernel, will grow eventually, in the words of Oscar Wilde, a bureaucracy that constantly expands to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy. And as Government grows so will society, from discussion at the kitchen table, to debate in the town square, to adjudication at the courthouse, to legislation from the State House.

Likely the first laws will present as moral suggestions carrying no more weight than public ostracism, but will soon become regulations that carry the punishment of fine or surrender of Liberty and Rights, to Law with the power to destroy all before it. As man, in God’s image, is granted by the creator the power to create or annihilate, so is Law and Government, the creations of man, granted power. But that power has no will, no animation that is not granted by its creator. If a people be moral and just, so shall be their law and they shall flourish. If corrupt, the people will suffer at the hands of their own creation.

In Governments, early form, every man can clearly see his natural right and duty to have a seat at the table, but as Society and Government grow in accordance to one another, once again man will grow slothful in his duty, comfortable to surrender the work of governing to others, and his creation will corrupt and turn on him. Such is the indisputable nature of man, and again, here lies clearly exposed to the bone, the absolute need for moral purity lest man become a slave to himself and his own best intentions. And herein lies the conundrum of man, without immorality there would be no need for Government, yet it is man’s desire for morality that leads him to create Government that requires immorality to sustain itself. Therefore, God’s morality must be the first and primary bond in any just society. Without God, there is no codified, just morality, without morality there is no society, without Society there is no Liberty, there is only immorality and with immorality there is only Government.