Ignorance is the quintessential American luxury. For decades knowledge of exactly why millions are risking life and limb to come to this country has not been necessary for maintaining its status as destination of choice for the world. For citizens in general, this exceptionalism has become an entitled and expected way of life with no regard whatever paid to how or why the quality and standard of life for them are the envy of the world. Such has been a luxury we were able to enjoy. Those days are gone.Concealed in the darkness of mass ignorance there is a thriving ideology, stateism, that has been eating away at the foundations upon which this great county was set; foundations laid by our founding fathers for a prosperous and free society. Mark Levin's book, Liberty And Tyranny, is an easy and quick read in which he breaks this ideology down historically, issue by issue, and liberal institution by liberal institution. In a format resembling an outline for a much larger and in depth expose, he presents in a concise, organized and compelling framework the major problems facing America.
These times demand that Americans educate and inform themselves beyond simply what is being presented to them in the news cycle. This book is an excellent starting point for the person insistent on not sitting idly by as his county, way of life, and liberty fades into history like the setting sun.
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6 comments:
Interesting. Francis Schaeffer died in 1984. Before he died, he was asked, "What do you see as the next big threat? What do Christians especially need to look out for?" His reply: "Stateism." As it turns out, it looks like he was right ...
A man of incredible insight for sure.
BG, I read Levin's book and I recommend it highly for everyone. Especially the mind numbed, NBC watchers out there who are being fed disinformation at lethal doses.
OK, I read it. Now, what was the question you asked me about this post?
do you think that Mark may approach conservatism too freely? here is what stuck out to me. “conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are our founding principles.”-Mark Levin. Tyranny does not come out of a vacuum. No, it must be cultivated and habituated to be.... well bad. If our "founding principles" have left enough room for tyranny to develop,would you not say that,this form is just one genesis of Tyranny? If he is not saying this then it must be that conservatism is a good type of governing system, one of many good sorts with equal capability of evil. Maybe he could define his terms a little better.....thoughts?
P.S just a lil post observation.
O.K. evil is in the heart of every man right... but a man who is raised and lives in a good system should he be able to see the harm in tyranny.
Let me first define the word "conservatism" as I understand it, which is that the word simply implies the "conservation" of the system of government that was set forth by the founding fathers.
One principle that becomes evident when examining the original system of government set up by our founding fathers was an understanding of the nature, or condition, of man, which is fallen. As such, man could not be trusted with power. This is why we see the whole concept of separated powers. Also the economic system was also built on this view of man. That is, I am by nature desiring to live off the sweat of another person's brow. But in a free market economy this does not work very well for me, so, our of self interest, expressed as hunger, I must work.
The erosion of this view of man, I believe, has been responsible for the break down of the American government as it was originally intended. In fact, I believe that the view of man as being basically good is contrary to reality, and as I see it, is at the root of all government failures-failure to be understood as the governance of a society stricken with poverty and oppression.
Now with this in mind I will give my thoughts on your comment.
If our "founding principles" have left enough room for tyranny to develop, would you not say that, this form is just one genesis of Tyranny
Quoting Madison from Levin's book on page 5: " "...the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
This is always the crux isn't it? Now consider if man sees himself as basically good, a view incidentally that is contrary to a biblical view of man. With this view, people will not be able to see the dangers in not conserving an objective prescription to which government must conform such as the prescriptions spelled out in the constitution. They will, on the contrary, see it as an obstruction to doing good and as such begin to redefine it. So, the room for tyranny to develop doesn't come from our founding principles as much as it comes from newly adopted principles that were derived from secular humanism. Those principles being that man is basically good. And since he is good there is no danger in cutting himself loose from any notion of objective truth. As he disconnects from the principle of objective truth the concept of evil is marginalized. We now see this. And as evil is marginalized the government is required to take an ever encroaching role in defining for people how they should live, and in so doing Tyranny is increased as liberty is lost.
In light of all this we can perhaps begin to understand better John Adams' statement: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
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