I like the above article BG and LG along with Plato and Aristotle. It will help the individuals who believe in LG, but not in terms of 'The Three Unalienable Rights under God'. The idea post-dates Plato and Aristotle. The idea came when the King James Version of The Bible was only 165 years old. Relatively speaking a very short time, which assisted in maintaining the reality for the Word of God which many of the Founders utilized on a daily basis, and knew to be True to the Integrity of an individual which is what this Nation of Ours is all about.
As Mr. Hudnall points out, BG has a constant battle with LG which has been going on since at least Plato and Aristotle's time, and in Chinese history also. Our Founders firm belief in the liberty, life, and happiness for individuals in LG is well said in George Washington's Farewell Address: "The Unity of Government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so for it is a main pillar in the Edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity, of the very Liberty which you so highly prize. But it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference you have the same Religion, Manners, Habits and political Principles. ..".
Right now, BG is the insidious and openly disagree group - Progressive who disbelieve our Founders, individual rights from God (only the group counts), who happened to win the 2008 election, and has truly decided that this BG-Progressive group can change or "..weaken your(LG or Constitutional Conservative) minds to the wisdom of this truth..": the heritage George Washington and Our Founders have left to US(A)! They are wrong.
It is very interesting to see the National and International effects or lack of effects between BG and LG. In order to make the turmoil more explicit, we have to be aware of Saul Alinsky's "Handbook of Liberals" because the Progressives could not function in any argument without its precepts. The one to emphasize occurring on Fox and probably other media is the "Fairness" doctrine from the Progressive viewpoint which is what Obama was after with his anger at the reporting of "politics" on Fox. The Alinsky idea behind Obama's "fairness" or "lack of fairness" is to: pick a large idea (commentary on Fox, reporting any activity in Wash. DC, choosing what, when, why to report what-ever the big issue contains); Freeze it (when the opposition - persona speaks, he/she rarely addresses the exact question with words that the question contains. Usually, choose and take-up the conversation around the question or its issue) to; personalize it (it's always politics, no-one listens to us, those Republicans won't join us in anything with using of minority leaders or whips to add-on a name); Polarize it (repeat as often as possible, in all issues or events, not a question of correct or incorrect presentation of fact, just end really does justify means, and repeat-repeat-repeat)! The end is apparent, confusion because conversation with viewpoints 180 degrees apart can never meet, don't answer questions at least never directly, never-never-never enter into questions of principle because after-all in the Alinsky Book it is all relative and has absolutely nothing to do with fact related to the experience of history.
This confusion expands itself into national and international actions and outcomes: LA Times; Mon. 2/8/10; 2 Articles: #1 is on the left #1 column: regarding Greece's, known Socialist Government with Union virtually running the government for many years with turmoil both financial and employment. Request from help from EU who says 'Yes' without when, how much, of what relief or assist. #2 on the last right Column of Front Page: Near agreement on Jobs Plan. This issue is too difficult for the Progressive since losing Massachusetts to Republicans, and a little side note - Gov. Christie in New Jersey freezing (not to be confused with Alinsky's freeze)all spending. Progressives cannot contemplate a 'government Not spending more taxpayer dollars to help taxpayer working people have jobs; i.e. Just say No to further Government spending of any sort! That is take taxpayer dollars to help jobs, then tax the income from the jobs or the businesses producing the jobs as demand increases for the product(s), with exceptions: One must not interfere with the Federal Judge-'ment' that the pumps that save little fishies in Central California, among the most productive agri. areas in the world, with little farmers who never vote progressive, and lots & lots of workers who don't earn as much as other workers in the Progressive definition of class, must be left alone to lose money, ownership of farms, and employment of agricultural planters, gardeners, harvesters of among the finest products in the world.
To bring these Greece, Jobs / government spending, and a little stretch to Iraq's attempt to have a sovereign Nation with more individual citizens involved, as connected dots can be observed in the methods that include the problem - government without a resource the US(A) calls 'We the People'. Because Democracy, which is the name our Founders used, along with the Frenchman, Frederick Bastiat who wrote about it in "The Law", and which is used by Obama and Associates as "Progressive", cannot work without the people's voted representatives working with the basis of law which is the right of the individual and 'The Three Rights Under God'. So Iraq, cannot have the elected Parliament work for the people and the Nation of Iraq before the stirred-up trouble of al-Saad from Iran. The epitome of wholesale disruption and hopefully for Iran plus al-Saad, the defeat through confusion of the people for the idea they need help from the US(A) to attain - at least some sovereignty for the People. The decisions the Parliament is in process of making, should not be going forward without the people speaking their ideas and without the interference from any 'special' religious faction. The factions should not have any power to undermine the people's wishes with their elected representatives. It is very difficult for any nation experiencing human nature as their religious leaders with absolute decisional power to recognize the mammal Homo-sapiens. As simple as it is to say "a man is a man for all that", the hundreds of years of believing that a man on earth can be as perfect of God, is not inducible to a sovereign group of individuals who for nearly the first time in Islamic History want a word about how their government works; and for the first time in history, representatives the people elect, must respect that support and word of, by and for the people - or more of a Republic! Another dot, Our current Government learning that the voice of 'We the people' or our elected representatives can and Shall represent the principles of the United States of American Before Any Party Affiliation! and the dot Greece, may finally recognize its loss as a Nation because of a Socialistic, ever-hungry, much too large government.
Free or Slave? Your Choice
Written by on February 12, 2010, 01:30 PM
The New Fascists: Part 1 A Political Primer
by James Hudnall, bigjournalism.com, Feb 11th 2010
My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devils best trick is to persuade you that he doesnt exist!
Charles Baudelaire, Le Joueur, February 7, 1864
Forget everything you think you know about politics. It is probably wrong.
There is no left or right. Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Conservative, Progressive, Democrat, Republican, those are all meaningless terms. They are used to confuse people so they miss the point. The most important point about politics there is. There are only two schools of political thought and they have predictable results. All the names and labels for them are just smoke and mirrors.
Political ideology is designed by elites to trick the masses into doing what they want. Each side tells you something designed to get your emotions going so they can play you. They get you to agree to give them more power, money and control over your lives by telling you some kind of story.
We need to put that vicious cycle to an end. Its time to understand what their real goals are. But to free your mind, you need to be educated first. Only by seeing the road ahead can you avoid tripping on stones or falling off cliffs.
There are only two real political choices to make. And it has nothing to do with parties. It has to do with core beliefs. You are for one side or another. These sides are diametrically opposed. The best way I can describe the two choices is, freedom or slavery. That is what it boils down to. And the slave in question is you.
Do you want to be a slave or a free person? Its your choice.
Im sure some of you reading this have your guard up now. So take a deep breath and walk with me for a second. I am going to open your eyes.
There are only two forms of government. Every kind of government is a branch or variation of one of the two forms. All the side issues, are just window dressing because the root form of government determines a lot of crucial matters that effect everything else.
The first form has many branches and is called many by names. It is common. It is the oldest form. It is, in fact, ancient. It has many names because so many of those names have fallen into disrepute. So they keep re-branding it and try to sell it in a different package. But no matter what name it takes, it still leads to the same end result.
The second form has very few branches and is rarer than any precious stone. It is something many people want but few have had. The believers in the first form are always trying to destroy this second form. They lie about it. Try to corrupt and subvert it. Because they know it will always be more popular with the people if they knew they had a choice. So the second form must always be defended from the predators from the first, because it is precious. I like to refer to each system as the minus and plus system. But well call them BG or LG here. Big Government or Limited Government.
Those who believe in BG go by many names, and many of these believers dont even know that theyre supporting the same goals as people they think are bad. But they have been tricked into selling out their own freedoms to enrich someone elses. All BG systems lead to the same result. I classify this as a minus system because its negative. The end result of a BG system is bad for most involved.
The BG system is designed to feed all resources to a few at the top. All else are diminished in power and wealth. But the citizens are told that they must support the government and its rules in order to receive some kind of benefits. In order to get the treats the government doles out, you have to give up your freedoms and your property. It sells the idea of some glorious future that is never attained and only gets worse over time. But it always maintains that it will lead to some kind of paradise.
It never does. It usually leads to some kind of hell. But it always finds people to subscribe to its ideas who become fanatical in defense of it, no matter how much the system abuses them. And it deludes many others into wanting it because it preys on their human nature, the very thing that destroys it in the end.
The LG or Limited Government system is the best system for human freedom. As a result it has been very rare in human history. Where it has been allowed to flourish, human beings have flourished. But those who believe in BG are always trying to corrupt and destroy LG societies. This is because LG denies ultimate power to those who seek it. An LG system is more fair because you get what you put in. You have the ability to advance to any level as long as you dont abuse the success that you have made or use it against others.
Before we explore how each system works, we need to understand the mindset of the people who believe in either system. I once did a cartoon illustrating the philosophies in the form of two Greek Philosophers, Aristotle and Plato. Each philosopher created the groundwork for understanding these schools of thought.
LG (Plus) believers are Aristotlian. They are like engineers. If something is proven to work, then they believe in it. They are not opposed to experimentation, but only if it involves proven principles. Ideas that are demonstrated to fail are rejected. They understand that human beings are flawed creatures. Humans are born hungry and spend their lives seeking to fulfill those hungers. In science terms, humans are driven by genetic hard wiring. It is part of their nature. In religious terms, humans are born with original sin. We cant radically change who we are and remain human. We can only seek to improve ourselves through discipline, education, reason and morality.
LG believers understand that humans are often given to a lust for power because we all want some kind of control. LG societies are designed to limit governance so the state can never become tyrannical. It realizes that human nature is a constant so you have to develop a system that works within its framework, and keeps its basic problems in check. That way a politicians greed is limited by what they are allowed to do by laws. The less interference a government has in human affairs, the more free the people are to progress on their own and flourish. LG believers are for individual rights. They believe a perfect society may not be possible, but it can be best achieved by respect for others rights and liberties. They believe in a social contract and the rule of law. They want people to be free in order to live their life without interference, as long as they respect others rights. The LG is there to enable the society to function and keep the peace, but it is not there to dominate or dictate how one should live.
BG (Minus) believers are Platonic. They posit that theres an ideal form of society somewhere in the future, a utopia populated by an idealized form of humanity. This can only be achieved by forcing people to change through rules, laws and governance. It wraps itself in good intentions, but it ignores human nature, believing people can be changed by rules. Making the public follow orders will correct their bad behavior as the state sees it. It does not believe it can be tyrannical because BG systems are always sure theyre correct, not matter what happens. Dissenters are ridiculed or punished. No matter how many mistakes a BG society makes or disasters it causes, it does not admit its fault. BG believers preach dependence on the state. It denies individual empowerment or freedom and instead promotes group think. It pushes the group over the individual to keep people in check. It does not want leaders so much as followers. Its leaders are usually the hungriest for power that make their way to the top by gaming the system.
BG societies are constantly creating diversions to keep the public focused on policies it wants to sell. So it often creates crises of some kind that the people are supposed to rally around. In order to get them to give up more freedom or personal wealth, it often uses scare tactics. Threats of invasion, threats of nature, etc. The elites in a BG system always live vastly better than those at the bottom, but it always promises some kind of equality that never exists in reality. And because the BG system is large and complex it relies on bureaucracies to manage them. But because bureaucracies are made of humans, human nature always corrupts these systems. A bureaucracy becomes inefficient and corrupt in direct proportion to its size. The larger, the less effective, the more corrupt.
BG systems usually lead to economic collapse and stagnation. Usually with dire consequences for millions of people. That is why citizens in BG societies often yearn to go to LG societies. Many of them risk their lives to escape from BG societies that hold them captive. Because in worst case scenarios, BG systems imprison their citizens. They are all, to some extent, anti-freedom. Its a matter of degree.
In contemporary American terms, the common names for BG and LG is progressive or conservative. Those terms have been used misleadingly by the media and others, so I avoided them. In part two I will do side by side comparison of the two systems performed in history. And I will explain the title of this series.
by James Hudnall, bigjournalism.com, Feb 11th 2010
My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devils best trick is to persuade you that he doesnt exist!
Charles Baudelaire, Le Joueur, February 7, 1864
Forget everything you think you know about politics. It is probably wrong.
There is no left or right. Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Conservative, Progressive, Democrat, Republican, those are all meaningless terms. They are used to confuse people so they miss the point. The most important point about politics there is. There are only two schools of political thought and they have predictable results. All the names and labels for them are just smoke and mirrors.
Political ideology is designed by elites to trick the masses into doing what they want. Each side tells you something designed to get your emotions going so they can play you. They get you to agree to give them more power, money and control over your lives by telling you some kind of story.
We need to put that vicious cycle to an end. Its time to understand what their real goals are. But to free your mind, you need to be educated first. Only by seeing the road ahead can you avoid tripping on stones or falling off cliffs.
There are only two real political choices to make. And it has nothing to do with parties. It has to do with core beliefs. You are for one side or another. These sides are diametrically opposed. The best way I can describe the two choices is, freedom or slavery. That is what it boils down to. And the slave in question is you.
Do you want to be a slave or a free person? Its your choice.
Im sure some of you reading this have your guard up now. So take a deep breath and walk with me for a second. I am going to open your eyes.
There are only two forms of government. Every kind of government is a branch or variation of one of the two forms. All the side issues, are just window dressing because the root form of government determines a lot of crucial matters that effect everything else.
The first form has many branches and is called many by names. It is common. It is the oldest form. It is, in fact, ancient. It has many names because so many of those names have fallen into disrepute. So they keep re-branding it and try to sell it in a different package. But no matter what name it takes, it still leads to the same end result.
The second form has very few branches and is rarer than any precious stone. It is something many people want but few have had. The believers in the first form are always trying to destroy this second form. They lie about it. Try to corrupt and subvert it. Because they know it will always be more popular with the people if they knew they had a choice. So the second form must always be defended from the predators from the first, because it is precious. I like to refer to each system as the minus and plus system. But well call them BG or LG here. Big Government or Limited Government.
Those who believe in BG go by many names, and many of these believers dont even know that theyre supporting the same goals as people they think are bad. But they have been tricked into selling out their own freedoms to enrich someone elses. All BG systems lead to the same result. I classify this as a minus system because its negative. The end result of a BG system is bad for most involved.
The BG system is designed to feed all resources to a few at the top. All else are diminished in power and wealth. But the citizens are told that they must support the government and its rules in order to receive some kind of benefits. In order to get the treats the government doles out, you have to give up your freedoms and your property. It sells the idea of some glorious future that is never attained and only gets worse over time. But it always maintains that it will lead to some kind of paradise.
It never does. It usually leads to some kind of hell. But it always finds people to subscribe to its ideas who become fanatical in defense of it, no matter how much the system abuses them. And it deludes many others into wanting it because it preys on their human nature, the very thing that destroys it in the end.
The LG or Limited Government system is the best system for human freedom. As a result it has been very rare in human history. Where it has been allowed to flourish, human beings have flourished. But those who believe in BG are always trying to corrupt and destroy LG societies. This is because LG denies ultimate power to those who seek it. An LG system is more fair because you get what you put in. You have the ability to advance to any level as long as you dont abuse the success that you have made or use it against others.
Before we explore how each system works, we need to understand the mindset of the people who believe in either system. I once did a cartoon illustrating the philosophies in the form of two Greek Philosophers, Aristotle and Plato. Each philosopher created the groundwork for understanding these schools of thought.
LG (Plus) believers are Aristotlian. They are like engineers. If something is proven to work, then they believe in it. They are not opposed to experimentation, but only if it involves proven principles. Ideas that are demonstrated to fail are rejected. They understand that human beings are flawed creatures. Humans are born hungry and spend their lives seeking to fulfill those hungers. In science terms, humans are driven by genetic hard wiring. It is part of their nature. In religious terms, humans are born with original sin. We cant radically change who we are and remain human. We can only seek to improve ourselves through discipline, education, reason and morality.
LG believers understand that humans are often given to a lust for power because we all want some kind of control. LG societies are designed to limit governance so the state can never become tyrannical. It realizes that human nature is a constant so you have to develop a system that works within its framework, and keeps its basic problems in check. That way a politicians greed is limited by what they are allowed to do by laws. The less interference a government has in human affairs, the more free the people are to progress on their own and flourish. LG believers are for individual rights. They believe a perfect society may not be possible, but it can be best achieved by respect for others rights and liberties. They believe in a social contract and the rule of law. They want people to be free in order to live their life without interference, as long as they respect others rights. The LG is there to enable the society to function and keep the peace, but it is not there to dominate or dictate how one should live.
BG (Minus) believers are Platonic. They posit that theres an ideal form of society somewhere in the future, a utopia populated by an idealized form of humanity. This can only be achieved by forcing people to change through rules, laws and governance. It wraps itself in good intentions, but it ignores human nature, believing people can be changed by rules. Making the public follow orders will correct their bad behavior as the state sees it. It does not believe it can be tyrannical because BG systems are always sure theyre correct, not matter what happens. Dissenters are ridiculed or punished. No matter how many mistakes a BG society makes or disasters it causes, it does not admit its fault. BG believers preach dependence on the state. It denies individual empowerment or freedom and instead promotes group think. It pushes the group over the individual to keep people in check. It does not want leaders so much as followers. Its leaders are usually the hungriest for power that make their way to the top by gaming the system.
BG societies are constantly creating diversions to keep the public focused on policies it wants to sell. So it often creates crises of some kind that the people are supposed to rally around. In order to get them to give up more freedom or personal wealth, it often uses scare tactics. Threats of invasion, threats of nature, etc. The elites in a BG system always live vastly better than those at the bottom, but it always promises some kind of equality that never exists in reality. And because the BG system is large and complex it relies on bureaucracies to manage them. But because bureaucracies are made of humans, human nature always corrupts these systems. A bureaucracy becomes inefficient and corrupt in direct proportion to its size. The larger, the less effective, the more corrupt.
BG systems usually lead to economic collapse and stagnation. Usually with dire consequences for millions of people. That is why citizens in BG societies often yearn to go to LG societies. Many of them risk their lives to escape from BG societies that hold them captive. Because in worst case scenarios, BG systems imprison their citizens. They are all, to some extent, anti-freedom. Its a matter of degree.
In contemporary American terms, the common names for BG and LG is progressive or conservative. Those terms have been used misleadingly by the media and others, so I avoided them. In part two I will do side by side comparison of the two systems performed in history. And I will explain the title of this series.
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