There are certain basic principles and ideas that form the moral predicates upon which all societies in all parts of the world are grounded. In the Western World these “pillars” upon which societies have been built have been progressively subjugated and are no longer part of the curriculum in public and many private—even Christian schools. It is good when young children memorize Bible verses. It is good when young teenagers commit to memory the words in our Great Declaration or The Gettysburg address. In college the classics and Biblical courses should not only be available but required core subjects. How can any person feel less than very valued when they know they were made in their Creator’s image no matter what limitations physical or intellectual, have been given to them. I love basketball. But should I be angry that because I am 5’-8’’ I my chances to play in the NBA are remote. Maybe I should wrestle or play lacrosse or become a nuclear scientist.
The progressive line has always been that there are halves and halve nots and the halves are always exploiting the halve nots. The Western Christian tradition dating back further than Plato and Aristotle and through both New and Old Testaments is that we are all created uniquely, with a purpose, with unique and different talents that can through cooperation be used to help our families and neighbors. That division of labor is based on an inequality of skills and talents that when used together the sum of those unique gifts is greater than the parts. Where those talents and skills are best brought together is in what we call “the marketplace”
Diversity and wealth and intellectual and physical talents have existed and exist today in all societies. It is an almost uniquely Christian idea that the contributions of the least can be more important than the contributions of those who rule them. It is possible for those who are considered to be great, who have been given the duty to rule over us, may be less worthy and virtuous than those who they rule over. The real marriage between Judeo- Christian and Enlightenment thought is the idea that different talents are the real source of wealth when allowed to be allocated evenly and efficaciously in a marketplace.
The real purpose of life on earth and man’s place in the world from the secular point of view, entertains the proposition that maintaining the material world, and the earth as a physical object is more important than man’s ultimate purpose on earth—To glorify God and love thy neighbor. The ecological, prolife, and woke—equality and white privilege movements all have a material end as their ultimate object. These movements as history have proven over and again have no real allegiance to their stated goals but are only movements to create chaos and intellectual consternation in the public’s minds so that its government will have more control over, WE THE PEOPLE.
The second point all these movements have in common is that progressives see wealth as primarily function of exploiting and controlling resources. These resources be they oil in the ground, crops in the field, or a baby in the womb, or a worker in a factory need to be controlled and managed—as resources. The Christian Conservative position is that wealth is not primarily a function of resources. Property and stewardship go hand in hand. The most important resource is the human mind. We innovate, invent and think about how to deploy resources. For those that think we are running out of natural resources for future generations or the Malthusians in the crowd who think we have too many people to feed and take care of, forget that there was once a time when all the oil that we have already used and all the oil we have yet to use was still in the ground, and we have more reserves today than at any time in history. The human mind has figured out how to find and extract from the earth those things we have been given dominion over. Too many children? Ask China how their one child program has worked out. What to do with too much of anything children or oil, is a much easier problem than deciding what to do with nothing of a lot—ask any Communist Country of the past 250 years. We in the Western world do not usually discover how to deal with a problem until we are faced with a problem and we think and plan for how to deal with it. Just like the Luddites in the garment factories learned to make sewing machines and the buggy makers learned to make cars. We innovate, adjust, fix, invent, and find a better way.
The Christian Conservative model understands that man is both material and spiritual. Totalitarian command and control systems suck the human spirit right out of people. For those systems and political philosophies that don’t understand both the spiritual and material nature of man and of the universe, limit their horizons both temporally and spiritually.
I invite any liberal progressive person reading this article to tell me one original idea or contribution a liberal democrat has had over the past 50 years. What Bernie, AOC, and Davalee Crocket have to offer are tried and failed policies and systems that have impoverished and killed over 100 million people—maybe twice that number under failed fascist and communist regimes.
One reply on “Heart and Soul”
So-called “progressive-ism” isn’t at all in favor of progress; instead it is regressive towards feudalism and elitism. True egalitarianism wants _everyone_ to benefit from advancements: every home has a car, a television, and a refrigerator that suits the owner’s needs and budget. Elitism tries to restrict benefits to the wealthy: only the wealthy get such things as cars and refrigerators but regular people can have TV’s as long as they watch the propaganda. Entrepreneurs invent new things and benefit as they benefit others. Elitists ironically limit the applicability of inventions making them expensive and exclusive. Inventors accept that their ideas are only as valuable and acceptable as their utility to others. Elitists attempt to artificially inflate the value of their ideas and ideologies, resorting to force when others reject their ideas. Conservatives use resources efficiently-conserving them and recognizing the costs of destruction and waste. Progressives tend to leech off others’ and therefore discount and underevaluate the true cost of things.