Sermonizin'

In a recently indulged comment by blog brother Keith he shared a recent Sunday Sermon entitled 'Obama is a Ruler of Biblical Dimensions!' The story of Pharaoh's Egypt is an excellent analogy to current events. But why are so many Americans, citizens of the greatest nation on earth, prepared to repeat this act of self-enslavement? I can best answer that with a sermon on 'Man's Rights' by Ayn Rand.

How many times have you heard it said that "health care is a right" or that "every American has a right to a decent job with a living wage?" Just last week an ACORN spokesman said that "housing is a right." [5:50] Those who hold these beliefs are willing to trade their political rights, or liberty, for economic "rights" - and expect the rest of us to do the same. Ayn Rand saw this in April of 1963:

Such is the state of one of today’s most crucial issues: political rights versus “economic rights.” It’s either-or. One destroys the other. But there are, in fact, no “economic rights,” no “collective rights,” no “public-interest rights.” The term “individual rights” is a redundancy: there is no other kind of rights and no one else to possess them.

But where did these ideas come from in modern America? According to Rand, first with FDR and then institutionalized in the Democratic Party Platform of 1960. (Click 'continue reading' to see the list.) Then she explains, "A single question added to each of the above eight clauses would make the issue clear: At whose expense?"

America has been "progressing" toward this point for my entire life. Since the "baby boom" generation American children have been raised with this altruist-collectivist ethic. Said Rand:

America’s inner contradiction was the altruist-collectivist ethics. Altruism is incompatible with freedom, with capitalism and with individual rights. One cannot combine the pursuit of happiness with the moral status of a sacrificial animal.

It was the concept of individual rights that had given birth to a free society. It was with the destruction of individual rights that the destruction of freedom had to begin.

Don't think America's founders were blind to this possibility.

The government was set to protect man from criminals—and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government. The Bill of Rights was not directed against private citizens, but against the government—as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.

But this reliance upon rights to protect man from government was able to be undermined by dispute over the origin of those rights. And this is where I depart from brother Keith - when it comes to his closing prayer.

The concept of individual rights is so new in human history that most men have not grasped it fully to this day. In accordance with the two theories of ethics, the mystical or the social, some men assert that rights are a gift of God—others, that rights are a gift of society. But, in fact, the source of rights is man’s nature.

So those who believe rights are bestowed on man by his society have merely to deny the existence of God to disarm those who hold the opposing theory. Until Americans learn the true nature of rights - individual right to life and property as a birthright and a natural consequence of the nature of his being - our civil order will always be threatened by the specter of tyranny.

“The source of man’s rights is not divine law or congressional law, but the law of identity. A is A—and Man is Man. Rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival. If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth is his purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being: nature forbids him the irrational.” (Atlas Shrugged)

Bear clearly in mind the meaning of the concept of “rights” when you read the list which the platform offers:

“1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.

“2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

“3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

“4. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad.

“5. The right of every family to a decent home.

“6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

“7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accidents and unemployment.

“8. The right to a good education.”

A single question added to each of the above eight clauses would make the issue clear: At whose expense?

Obama Administration Philosophy Posted by JohnGalt at February 28, 2009 7:51 PM