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Limited Government Godliness as the Prerequisite for
Limited Government I write this piece from the perspective of a Christian, a patriot, and
an advocate of Limited Government. Its intended audience is all people
of all political and theological persuasions, but is primarily written for
the conservative and believer to give apologetic support for Limited
Government and America's return to its foundation as a Christian Nation.
I believe America's foundation and her Constitutional Republican form
of government were ordained and inspired of God. I believe the Constitutional
Republic, with its 3 separate branches, and its capitalism-based economy,
contains the necessary elements to manifest an operationally perfect
system of government. But,
the economic-governmental system by itself is lifeless and will not
mechanically bring forth the optimum experience of societal function. Rather, the Capitalistic Republic
must be given life, spirit, and direction by an entire nation of men,
representatives and citizens, who are unambiguously committed to
manifesting the will of God on Earth. The impersonal forces and
machinery of government and the market can be bent to any purpose, and
neither liberalism, republicanism, nor a libertarian government formed
only by the requirements of a free market have sufficient internal
boundaries or incentives to guide men into a state of fulfillment in their
public and private lives.
Our nation, governed by the limits of the Constitution, can only reach
its potential of maximal similarity to Heaven when the citizens
continuously struggle to manifest Godliness in their private and public
lives. I believe America’s
first immigrants, and the framers of our founding documents, intended to
establish a Christian nation, and that America is falling from greatness
because of our rejection of the Judeo-Christian ethic and commitments.
The responsibility for
restoring our land lies squarely on the backs of believers. It is not the pagans, atheists, and
humanists who must first become holy, righteous, and repent so that our
nation may prosper, rather it is we as Christians who must lead. When Christendom truly lives the
holy and righteous life implied by the name "Christ-in", the brightness
and righteousness of our lives will shine, and enroll the world to imitate
that goodness and share in the rewards such a life offers. 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My
name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin and heal their land. Human nature is primarily driven by
self-interest, which includes a lust for power, a desire to maintain its
own existence and lifestyle at the expense of others, and a drive to
control its environment by coercion, criticism, and force. A society populated with people who
have not dedicated themselves to balancing these human traits with
Godliness, will manifest elements of these passions in their institutions
of government and industry. The unsanctified human drive in the
institutional, corporate, and governmental group-expression results in
various forms of societal abuse. The compassionate Liberals now
campaign on the promise to raise taxes to transfer wealth to the
entitlement class. The holier than thou Liberals impose unGodly moral
standards in the name of gender and sexual orientation equality and
tolerance. The freedom loving
Liberals legislate infanticide in the name of choice. The progressive Liberal declares
Secular Humanism as the de facto state religion in the name of separation
of church and state. The one
world globalist Liberal opens our borders to illegal immigration, trade
without restriction, and trilingual instruction pamphlets in the name of
multiculturalism. The stimulus to write this piece came from
an email that raised the issue of imminent excessive governmental
surveillance and regulation of personal decisions. A Godly government needs
information to help facilitate the coordination of its various limited
duties. But, surveillance as
a tool for governmental quality control and management can be redirected
to intimidate, coerce, and enable enforcement of laws that benefit the ego
and unGodly social engineering of government more than it benefits the
social order. Unless
Godliness directs the individual and group spirits of a society, the
government will pursue its own best interests at the expense of the
populace. History is replete
with examples of societies overtaken by tyrants. On some level, all people who have
succumbed to tyranny have suffered from a deficiency in discernment and
response to budding evil embedded within the social/political environment.
Even the best government will
be forced to engage in ever more draconian surveillance, legislation, and
enforcement to fulfill its charter of maintaining the social order when
the people abandon Godly self-regulation. The philosophers from both sides of the
political divide have offered solutions for the social issues. The Liberal solution is in general
an increase in government control, more spending on social programs, less
religion, less government intrusion, and more enforcement in the areas of
freedom of choice, tolerance, and equality. The Libertarian solution is little
or no government and regulations, while allowing the forces of the market
to regulate human behavior. The Conservative seeks to reduce
taxes, balance the budget, minimize government, and return God to public
life. The following essay is
largely an analysis of the Libertarian perspective of a society without
government. The examination
concludes that a central nervous system is required to control the
movement of the body. Likewise, we need to fully
represent the metaphor of the body in the society, by the organ of
government, with its executive branch, courts, laws, and bureaucratic
administration of those laws.
But, having noted the necessity of government, we then emphasize
that most of the duties of our current "New Deal – Great Society" government can be
transferred to the private sector if the society is well organized and
interconnected with the purpose of cooperation, and the people adhere to
Godliness. The essential hope of a Market based
government (Libertarian) is that the society will self regulate
because the force of self-interest will be so strong and detailed that the
regulation by law will be made obsolete. Such a system is value-free in the
sense of not regulating anyone by any set of governmentally chosen set of
supernaturally attributed morals.
The essential hope of the Government based economy (Liberal)
is that the wisdom of man will provide direction that will be higher than
the pandering to base desires produced by the market and its appeal to
man's base appetites. The
Limited Government (Conservative) seeks to take the best from both,
and produce a synthesis of Godly Law that establishes the basic ground
rules within which economy can function in its robust effort-rewarding
manner that gives men the incentive to work and produce for profit and
consumption. The non-Christian population of the United
States may see the common adoption of a Christian form of Godliness as the
establishment of a theocracy or a Church-State religion. But, it is only returning America
to its foundation, which has always tolerated other faiths, but it
maintained the Judeo-Christian moral standard as the foundation for law
and common civil relationship. Religion in a Christian nation
would be self-imposed. But,
without a majority who choose to vote, legislate, and manage the private
sector on Christian principles, the social standard will revert away from
the Godliness that produces the stable and lovely group ethic that allows
Limited Government. Prayer and Bible reading should not be
mandatory, nor should church attendance, but if these good practices are
not broadly maintained in the culture, the seeds of destruction will be
sown in the society. Limited
Government allows people to choose their philosophical-religious beliefs,
but social behavior that crosses the line of violation of others must be
proscribed. A judiciary
comprised of men holding Godly standards is the only group that should
try, convict, and punish on behalf of the state. But, the enforcement of most forms
of antisocial behavior involving self, family, work, should be handled
within the social unit close at hand. Likewise, the excellent behaviors
such as prayer and Bible reading in school should be allowed and
encouraged, as parents should be able to extend teaching of their children
to the large segments of imprinting time occupied by the classroom. Educational choice should be
universal, as this makes the educational establishment accountable to the
demands of a Godly marketplace. When people are enfranchised to
vote with their feet and their money, the market responds to give them
what they want. But again,
the market is not the solution; it is only one tool of the society that
must be sanctified. I use the word "Godliness" extensively in
this essay. The reader should
understand that the intended meaning and implication of this word is
love of self, neighbor, and God, as the Laws of God are
summarized in this principle and spirit. Godliness refers to the entire
spectrum of good and right manners, rules of relationship, ethics, and
morals established by God as Right. Forgiveness of offense releases the
soul to live in love, and authorizes God to deliver justice. Love repays evil with good, but
this does not mean accepting violation without response and letting evil
prosper without resistance. Love informs the violator of his
injury to person or property, and restraint is delivered in the form of
boundaries, reduction in degrees of freedom and instruction. Love speaks the Truth, but does so
in love. To allow the evil to
perpetuate unopposed enrolls the victim as a party to the violation. Confronting and establishing
boundaries expresses love and creates a strong relationship with the
violator. Confront the
violation with humility, and have faith that the message will eventually
be received. Always be open
to the possibility of an error in my own judgment of right and wrong.
Know that God loves each
person, regardless of his or her political persuasion, economic standing,
educational background, moral compass, or religious belief. But, there is a way of life that
brings men into relationship with the Father God, and many ways that
separate us from His fellowship. Following the path and pull of
selfish human passions, un-moderated by love, separates us. It is our duty to be God's light in
showing that we actually care for the prosperity of every man's soul and
body. --- The following essay was initiated and
stimulated when John, a Libertarian, sent me the following email
dramatizing how much personal data could soon be collected and made
available to government, corporations, law enforcement, federal and state
agencies and bureaucracies. From: John Ordering pizza in
2010. This is funny, but scary because it's probably not too
far from becoming reality. John John, I enjoyed the future-reality shock humor. The point of the piece was no
doubt to illustrate that big government wants to control us in every
aspect of our lives, and you are undoubtably right about the propensity of
Big Government to expand and control. But, in the vein of our previous
discussions about adopting a Libertarian style economy-only society, I
believe it would be necessary to implement even more data collection than
was illustrated in the 2010 Pizza piece if we do not have a governmental
system. Not sure about
that, Tom. A completely
private society could offer any services a government can offer, but
services would be offered competitively, not monopolistically, and costs
would be distributed more efficiently to those who benefit. You use a road and you pay for
it. No collectivist taxes on
everybody regardless of whether they use a resource or not. Etc. There are private
models of justice adjudication, private roads, private currency, etc. This pizza thing is a vision of a
corporate society propped up by government protection from
competition. In a private
property society one would agree to only the level of surveillance one
chooses. With government
you have monopoly power, and legislation, and if one does not participate
in the national database one is a criminal and hauled off to jail. Government is about giving
super-human rights to ordinary humans. I contend that nobody has the
right to take my money by force regardless of whether he has a mask over
his head or a shiny badge and a gun.
We cannot hire others to steal, and yet voting is precisely a
sanitized and respectable form of that. There must be something inherently
immoral about giving certain human beings the right to steal with immunity
or to initiate force against others. Please don't take
my word for it! There are
people smarter than I who have thought through all these issues and
written books. Cheers, John
John, according to the "Let
go and Let the Market" article by Gladish that you recently sent me,
one way of implementing a Market-Only system that replaces government
would be to use RFID monitoring of the entire populace. Gladish uses the data collection
capabilities associated with modern technology at the center of his
theory. To implement a
cashless society, where credit is given based on service to the society
and credit is withdrawn from the individual’s account due to moral
violations, requires a great deal of information about the person so that
the society/market can make these kind of judgments. The Gladish article illuminates
the fact that any system that seeks to eliminate government will introduce
other institutions or methods to serve the same function, and other
remedies must then be applied to fix the unexpected and often unpleasant
side effects. Upon examining
this subject, I have come to realize that Limited Government can only
exist for a righteous and Godly people. When the people, their
representatives, and commitment of government is to Godliness, it is
possible for Government to shrink to its minimal necessary
size. I understand and agree with
your point about the intrusiveness of government, and the possibility of
delegating, and reallocating the functions of government to private
enterprise. To summarize, you
believe that it is not necessary to have a system of top-down
government-imposed laws, (or at most, that government should be very
limited), and that private citizens or corporations can organize to
perform many of the functions of government such as: police and justice,
allocation of resources, punishment of moral infractions by economic
sanctions of various sorts, and in short do all the functions of society
without governmental direction.
I agree that such a system is possible. But, my comment about the need for
a strong information collection and surveillance system being necessary to
implement an “economy-only government” was given credence by the concept
introduced in the Gladish article.
From that essay I was
alerted to the likelihood that a vast databank about each person’s
life-transactions was possibly necessary in order give proper feedback to
enforce economic sanctions against those who do things that some people
might consider wrong (such as murder and theft). Gladish proposes that it is
possible to implement market sanctions against people who have engaged in
trespassing of various sorts simply by making their behavior available
known to the market. This
appeal to the market for an impersonal, non-law/government imposed
response, was meant to show the plausibility of creating a society without
any appeal to, or definition of, moral standards. (Note: the lack of
any religion/mysticism based moral system seems to be a primary point in
the Gladish theory. He really
wanted to develop a society that could implement a perfect market-based
regulation of the society without the acknowledgment of God in any
way. He was really arguing
against the need for government, and the laws and moral codes they
imply. He was using the
elimination of government as a surrogate opponent to show that God and His
standards were unnecessary.
He sought to create a system where the humanistic understanding of
“best practices” could be reflected in the economy and executed to show
that an entire society could be regulated without an appeal or reference
to Godly morality. Proverbs
14:12 "There is a way that
seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." The Founders intended that our
government reflect Godliness in its structure and laws, just as God
Himself intends that righteous government reflects His righteous will and
way.) But in order to give
concreteness to his theory, and to implement this Godless system of
economic feedback he noted that information would be needed to give
indicators of each person’s credit-worthiness. Thus he introduced the solution of
RFID or Biometrics tracking of each person’s productivity and violations
of property and person. With
this information included in the personal database the raw data would be
available for the market to judge a person’s creditworthiness. The combination of collecting
detailed data about the person’s life, and the absolute power to grant the
credit that sustains life and lifestyle, makes it possible to apply
economic consequences upon them.
Such force in a cashless, credit-only, society provides a
near-irresistible force on the violator. If the data collection were
extreme enough, the economic pressure on the individual would create a
nation of sheep. The force
and judgment of the economic system would be so precise that the economic
feedback would shape everyone to fit the algorithmic judgment of the
system. And yes, a society can
agree to any level of surveillance of its citizens, just as it can
organize its own police force, currency, independent territory, defense,
research and education system, etc.
(Note: any time a
regulatory function is exercised by a subset population over the larger
whole (e.g. police, judiciary, housing association executive committee,
etc.), that subset is operating as a de facto government. These mini-governments are simply
of a smaller size, and offer the possibility of more local control and
participation than the macro-federal and state governments; i.e. entities
that exercise the onerous duties of taxation and foolish appropriation of
those resources. And, if this
is the goal, to reduce the size of government and make it more personal
and wise, then the privately employed system can do that. But, even the private system can
grow and become impersonal, rude, and foolish. If the goal of privatization is to
eliminate governmental, parental, rule-making bodies entirely, this is not
logically possible. If the
private system executes or enforces any rule-making or regulatory
function, it has power over the participants, and is a type of
government.) If we are to use
only the forces and tools of the market to regulate the
interpersonal behavior of the citizens, then the amount of finesse,
dexterity, nimbleness, and agility of the economic system to do all these
functions, without government, will require a huge amount of data
collection. And this is the
point where the potential slide into tyranny enters the market-only
solution. The database must
be available to all people so that they can each individually evaluate the
creditworthiness of a person before rendering them goods or services. Otherwise, if each person does not
judge every other person’s creditworthiness, the database of service
credit, consumption and violation debits must be computed by the
impersonal judgment of the credit-debit algorithm. The entry of the credit-debit
algorithm into consideration illuminates the potential for abuse and
tyranny, since the algorithm will necessarily reflect someone’s judgment
of Truth and Right behavior, or “best practices”. Gladish clearly wishes to
implement a society without the embedded morality of law imposed upon
society. He wants to show
that it is possible to create a society which does not even refer to a
moral system at all, and thereby shows the irrelevance of God. He desire to prove that by
appealing only to the sense of best practices within humanity that society
can function in a good, peaceful, and well-regulated way. And his alternate system is to
show that the market-alone can make judgments of people’s
creditworthiness, and that this tool will give social feedback that alters
behavior and shapes it toward that excellent pattern that we all desire of
our fellow man. Gladish is
proposing a society-wide cybernetic feedback system to shape behavior
using economic incentives and disincentives. He proposes using RFID implants or
biometrics to track the movements and transactions of all people at all
times doing all things seems.
With this raw data he then applies an algorithmic analysis, and
gives people the reward of credit for good behavior such as work,
volunteer service, kindness, voting, etc. And, for consumption of resources,
carbon footprint, rude behavior, and criminal conduct, credit is
subtracted from his account.
I must admit the system is brilliant. It will produce an incredible
society. This will work! Government will absolutely be
unnecessary using such a system.
It appeals to the most powerful tools available to shape human
behavior, reward/aversion training, Operant conditioning, the Pavlovian
signal, and the cybernetic loop.
With society hooked up to such a loop, it will not be necessary to
use force or government to control the society. Thus my comment, that the 2010
pizza story sounded very similar to the society of an economy-only
government. Gladish’s economy only
system transfers the central nervous system function of the traditional
government to impersonal enforcement by an economic algorithm that judges
our creditworthiness. Instead
of government using laws, the courts and police as enforcers of moral
standards, our behavior is “shaped” according to the judgment of the best
practices of the group mind of that society. A nation without any data
collection system, and no government, would be regulated much like the
economies of the pre-industrial and information age. The economies in these times were
subject to frequent boom and bust cycles, which appear to have been
smoothed out somewhat. (Note: This
smoothness lasts as long as we follow the rules of good monetary and
fiscal policy both publicly and privately. I refer in particular to the laws
that Congress passed which forbade lending institutions to discriminate
against people who could not qualify for a loan for lack of sufficient
collateral, thus precipitating the current housing crisis.) My point is that without
any (or only a small amount of) data collection about the internal
workings of the economic system, the potential for huge disparities
between production and demand, or monopolistic entities arising that take
over the economic landscape are real possibilities. Likewise, it is possible
for the tipping point of loans and credit to extend past the place where a
person could realistically produce the value associated with that
credit. Without calculations,
without data, without monitoring of transactions and comparing credit
worthiness against the proposed purchase, the aggregate societal economic
balance sheet could easily become unbalanced. When the supply and demand does
not match, the system can go unstable, and produce shortages, recessions,
and even depression. But,
even these problems may be eventually solved by various limits, and
systems put in place to reduce the risk and consequences even without
intrusive data gathering. I do not wish to impugn the
economy-only government solely on the issue of the need for excessive
surveillance, although I think it is an important consideration for those
who wish to advocate for this solution to the problem of intrusive,
corrupt, and ever-expanding government. Rather, the more important
criticism that I wish to confront about the economy-only government is its
basis upon self-interest.
This criticism may be shocking, since its advocates tout the
superiority and advantages of the market-based government because of its
dependence upon this strong natural human emotion. Structuring a system that caters
to the self-interest of every man yields a most productive society. Each individual naturally purses
his own best self-interest by whatever means he deems most effective. If society values production, and
does not give him food, shelter, and entertainment if he does not produce
value, then he will receive strong feedback that production is
required. In such a system every man
is equal and is forced by the natural demands of fairness to produce value
so that he can receive value from others. And as sovereign controller of his
credit expenditure, he can choose to transfer that credit to farmers in
exchange for food, or he can give that credit to charities, agencies,
research, education, or any other entity of his choice. Every person desires
freedom from forceful domination.
We desire a society that regulates the passions of men and honors
our inalienable rights. We
desire protection from: the bullying of other private citizens, the
monopolistic practices and tendencies of corporations, and from government
corrupted by the influences of power, fame, and wealth. The economy-only system has been
presented as such a system.
But, we should be cautious in placing our full trust in a system
that is free from an acknowledgement of every citizen’s responsibility to
embrace Godly self-regulation.
I see polar expressions of
the world in all circumstances.
In the extreme expression
of any system, the power is more concentrated and hence there is the
possibility of exerting undue influence for personal benefit or to
manifest a personally held belief about a greater good (such as we see in
the jihadist philosophy).
Human nature is strongly tempted to take advantage of available
power. In the case of the world
governed by self-interest only, the system is likely to allow the
cultivation and growth of an extremely virulent strain of self-interested
individuals. These people
make an art form of evading the modest barriers erected within a polite
society. This is the predator
species; the trusting people who simple do their job, think about others,
and expect truthfulness are the societal prey. The more a society promotes
the pursuit of self-interest (without a sense of moral/Godly regulation to
temper the desires of the self), the greater the probability that it will
evolve a subpopulation of predators.
Such a system is closely akin to the law of the jungle system, and
while efficient and free, it is brutal. Charity, kindness, and heart must
be incorporated into a “self-interest” based system so it produces more
that an abundance of products at low prices. I believe that for the
self-interest based world to actually produce the joie de vivre that
people really desire, it must incorporate the personality and properties
of Godliness into the individual and societal values. This point is the major theme of
my essay, and is the only force in which I place my faith in the
possibility of man creating a successful and stable Limited
Government. One possible transition
scenario from our current state of Traditional Government to Limited
Government, is for the entirety of the nation, individuals and groups, to
suddenly embrace Godliness.
Such a scenario is obviously unlikely, but is considered to note
that any system of government could be sanctified if all the people in the
society and government spoke, acted, and thought in terms of legislating,
adjudicating, and governing under the influence of Godliness. Limited Government could
evolve from any governmental system.
Limited government at its “sweet spot” nourishes private ownership,
rewards the risk of investment, labor, and invention; it collects
extensive but non-intrusive data about production, consumption, and
opinions; it provides easy ongoing interim, official non-binding voting on
issues to give feedback to professionals, corporations, government
agencies, judiciary, legislators, and executives; it has a media that
reports the facts as objectively as possible, provides a place for the
expression of opinion, and allows a forum for discussion about the issues,
and is committed to presenting the news through the lens of
Godliness. Ideally, Limited
Government optimizes the establishment of limits and the satisfaction of
desires, and does it through mechanisms that are largely generated by the
community debate and arise as a social consensus. In the society that
expresses itself according to the moral bias of Godliness, and under the
societal organization of Limited Government, the behavior of each man is
properly respectful of the property and interests of his neighbors. And, various other intangible
“best practices” of mankind optimize interactions on many subtle
levels. To coordinate public
activities, the Limited Government will require some level of data
collection. Likewise, the
majority of citizens must participate in some level of active community
and professional involvement such as staying informed and voting about
issues within the profession, union, or corporation. And, unless volunteers handle the
duties of management and decision-making, the group would need to assess
(private tax) its members to support administrators that serve in each
cluster. Without a set of standards
for performance, behavior, and goals, and actual data regarding these
parameters, it will be impossible for a private society, or government to
intervene to improve performance.
Intrusive monitoring of personal behavior is not necessary when the
individuals can be trusted to morally self-regulate. And, social monitoring for
purposes of safety and defense can be trusted when the governing agencies
are dedicated to the principles of Godliness. Next we examine another
transition scenario starting with the Strong Central Government, and
follow its gradual evolution into the optimum Limited Government. The first step in this
transformation is the installation, election, or miraculous conversion of
the heads of state and their cabinet. The leadership enforces Godliness
from the highest level, and with this commitment to Godliness, the
parental government exerts an influence on the citizens and institutions
at each successively subservient level in the society. Any system of Government
can be endured and reasonably well enjoyed as long as the leaders of
business and industry, the bureaucrats, professionals, labor, and
homemakers bow to the rules of Godliness in conducting their professional
and personal lives. Any
system of government can transform into the optimum mix of government and
private enterprise to form a Limited Government if the entire populace is
likewise transformed. There
will always be a problem with the stability of the system though, since
the heart of man has such great affinity for pleasing self, over the Godly
regulation of desire to love God’s way and to love neighbor as self, that
after the horrors of one historical vignette has past, they forget, and
seek to increase their pleasure over the amount allowed by the moderated
consumption of pleasure available to the Godly. People are greedy, they want more,
and they take more than is fair, more than they deserve for the amount
that they have earned. God
has created evil to tempt us, to continually challenge us to choose Him
over the pleasures of the flesh at the expense of someone else. Thus, the only way to maintain the
ideal society where limited government thrives in perpetuity is for the
people to continue to warn their children of the dangers of the spirits
that lie inside. The children
must be taught the principles of goodness, and the evil they express in
their temptations and transgression in lying, cheating, stealing, and
fornicating must be confronted and used as object lessons to awaken the
soul to the dragon that lies within.
The parent that does not reign in the child and teach him the ways
of the Lord and embed the spirit of self-regulation in his heart is a
violator and puts the entire society at risk. Only one strong charismatic
deluder need enter the world stage for a nation of unprepared sheep to be
led into slavery. Thus, the
parents need to teach their children the patterns of truth and lies in the
public arena, and impress upon each one the personal responsibility that
he has to confront evil in his fellow man. Assuming that “it isn’t my fight,”
and “what right do I have to confront another person in their sin,” is the
method by which the wolves grow strong and eventually terrorize and
control the herd. If the people are forced to
be good and Godly by men with guns and shiny badges, the society will
prosper. The good people will
love the enforcement of righteousness, the evil will hate it, and those
without a Godly moral compass will not be able to tell the
difference. When the general
population adopts the spirit of Godliness as an internal commitment, the
authority of the State can be gradually transferred to a Godly strong
private sector to self-regulate.
Such is the natural progression toward the appropriate level of
freedom. People have the “right” to
do Right, but they have no right to do Wrong. It makes no difference whether
government or hired security corporations enforce right behavior. The argument is over who is more
likely to enforce righteousness, and who is more likely to use the power
of force to perpetrate and use their authorized power to steal and
enslave. The Libertarian
argues that government is inherently susceptible to the seduction of power
because of the lack of personal consequence and investment. This argument and
consideration is true, and for this reason we must populate the ranks of
our civil servants with Godly men.
We must insure that the charters of each bureau and agency have the
service of God written into their charters. We must require that the
leadership, of agencies be men committed to Godliness in character,
discrimination, and courage.
Such men should be able to examine law, policy, and intent and
confront error in their construction and execution. The manager in government and
industry often only sees his position as oversight, rather than as judge
and advocate for righteousness.
Such a frame cannot be allowed in a Godly society. Every day, every person must take
on the job of advocating for righteousness in his sphere, and do so
without fear of livelihood and status. The person serving in the
governmental machine clearly faces temptations. He faces the challenge of falling
into bureaucratic malaise where anything is acceptable that is dictated by
law or his superiors. The
standards of right and wrong become blurred and questionable as he sees
arguments for both sides of issue.
The numbing effects of peer pressure, management, repetition and
moral complexity cause him to lose courage and conviction to confront the
wrong he once saw clearly. He
conforms to questionable policies and enforces them out of fear of loss of
position or promotion if the commands of the hierarchy are questioned,
challenged, resisted, or exposed.
Still, all these temptations can be overcome by a commitment to
Godliness. We have clearly identified
the fact that government has difficulty solving the problems of wealth
allocation, poverty, job security, health care, drug addiction, and
unemployment. But simply
turning these problems over to the private sector will present its own set
of challenges. Ultimately,
the same requirements for Godliness that we considered above in the
governmental hierarchy are active in the private sector. The major difference between the
two realms, public and private is that the private sector is subject to
the feedback loop of wealth creation. If no wealth or value is created,
and if there is no demand for the product created, then the private
enterprise fails. But, the private
institutions are subject to their own fatal flaws. The requirement to produce
quarterly profits causes companies to shortchange R&D
expenditures. The drive of
wealth and greed causes the captains of industry to seek to consume their
competition and raise prices as they establish monopolistic control. The drive to produce more faster,
cheaper, and better pushes managers to push workers to higher levels of
stress, with longer hours, and lower wages. Thus, for the society to
truly be a pleasant and joyous place to live, the private institutions
should require their employees to behave in the ways of Godliness. The citizen should realize that
supporting the cheapest foreign brand may place workers, the environment,
or prosperity at home in peril.
Simply instituting private enterprise in lieu of government will
not immediately solve all the problems of society. But, the dog eat dog competition
of free enterprise will provide a pressure to produce results. Thus, these various social
problems will probably get better under the automatic disciplinary hand of
free enterprise. But, until
Godliness is instituted as part of the corporate culture the workplace
will still be a painful experience.
When the individual,
corporation, and government embrace Godliness, the system will assume a
relative stability and righteousness. It was the intention of the
Founders in their framing of the Constitutional Republic to establish a
system of Limited Government based on the broad embed of personal
self-government. In our modern wired world,
we can each begin the process of pushing to establish Godliness in our
sphere of influence. The
chances of Godliness taking hold and pushing back the sea of hedonism and
Godless self-indulgence is slim.
But, there is no point in just sitting back and capitulating. More than likely we will have to
suffer some very great disaster, where people realize that we are not
adequate to hold against the powers of darkness without the help of a
miracle working God. At that
time, we should be ready with our testimony and our plan of action. Much discussion is held
bantering the term “Limited Government” among the conservative
circles. But, the meaning of
this term is so ambiguous that we could easily argue that the best
government is no government.
But, reason, history, human nature, the Bible, the Constitution,
and the metaphors of nature argue for an ecologically complex system that
incorporates government and private enterprise in a single system. The complexity of moderation
associated with competing and mutually interdependent systems creates
ecological complexity and system robustness. Personal self-government
according to the Biblical principles of Godliness was the intention of the
Founders in their establishment of a Constitutional Republic. If we take the Constitution and
its implicit standard of Godliness as our national charter, we will begin
to transfer the various functions of government to private
enterprise. When Godliness is the
primary rule in a man’s life, only a minimal level of government need
coordinate, enforce, and focus the individual and group activity. Regardless of the path to Limited
Government, Godliness is the central key to allowing the society to have
stability, security, and satisfaction. From this point on, I shall
dispense with the discussion of the “Economy-Only Government” and shall
instead focus on the optimization of the “Limited Government”. The perfect mix of government and
private enterprise will not be advocated or explicitly elaborated, other
than to recommend that a limited Federal and State government as advocated
by the Founders. I believe
the Constitutional template was divinely inspired, and I believe it will
function well as the initial template for the implementation of a
consciously chosen system of Limited Government in a complex ecology of
private enterprise and a family of nations. There are many possible
mixes of government and private sector functions that a society may
choose. A large body of
people will necessarily require the performance of many types of
functions. Thus, people will
specialize according to the needs of the time, and talents of the
individual. These disparate
activities of individual and groups comprising the economy-society must be
coordinated and centralized at various levels, whether by governmental or
private institution. Each society must decide
how much personal data and monitoring is needed to regulate personal
behavior, ethics, environment, and educational standards, etc. Laws, policies, agreements, or
contracts will be made to guide industry and private behavior and to thus
institutionalize the wisdom of experience. Likewise, the contingencies for
change must be built into the system to adapt to internal and external
pressures such as new technology, environmental concerns, resource
scarcity, and international relations. Note: In this essay,
we have not stated how Godliness will arise, or even how to make it
arise. Obviously this is a
critical consideration because the foundational consideration in
establishing the Limited Government is a Godly society. Nevertheless, in its implemented
state, Godliness will be a form of non-denominational Judeo-Christian
ethics that will permeate the society. There will be no creed or standard
of orthodoxy that anyone must believe, but the general standard will be
the hologram of Biblical Truth.
This will leave the specifics of what Truth is, and how it is to be
implemented, open to debate in every situation, personally, publicly and
in government. No act of
Congress will establish a religion, people are free to believe or not
believe anything. Still the
Constitution is to be recognized as being based upon the general
principles of Christianity and governing a Godly people. Law will be established with it
foundation based upon the moral principles of the Bible, and a body of
cases with precedent, argument, and justification. There will be a spirit of
reverence and respect for God as creator and author of life that is held
by all respectable members of society. Parents, educational
establishments, courts, businesses, and bureaucracies will all speak,
teach, and legislate overtly in terms of Christian ethics. There will be no law passed
requiring a particular denominational worship, and no law passed declaring
a particular doctrine as orthodox.
But, there will be an open consideration and acknowledgment and
debate at all levels of government, business, and family about the
righteousness of any rule, policy, or fee as it relates to the Judeo
Christian concept of Godliness. But, we currently live in a
society without an overt commitment to Godliness. We once were much more committed
to life governed by this principle and spirit, but, in our current era, we
have a socially liberal contingent that actively campaigns against any
acknowledgment of Godliness in government. Our money still says, "In God we
Trust" and our pledge still says, "One nation under God", but these are
straggling remnants that are crumbling as the generations and traditions
are being replaced by Humanism, selfishness, greed, personal satisfaction,
and desire. The fundamental commandment
of the Bible is summed up in the following verses: Matthew
22:37 Jesus said to him, "
'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind.' The above principle is the
foundation of all social systems whether government-based, or
economy-based. Regardless of
whether a nation is governed by law or by equity in trade, the nation and
its people must have a respect for the Law of God and have the Spirit of
God in their hearts.
Godliness is expressed as acting on the spiritual insight that
reveals how life really is to be lived in perfection as seen by God. Godliness is perceived as a
vision, feeling, and/or knowing of the way of God. Every person has the rudimentary
leading of God in his heart, but it becomes much more refined and
accessible when a person engages in daily Bible reading, accepts Jesus as
his Lord, and immerses himself in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the personal vision of
Godliness is available to every man who puts his heart, soul, mind, and
strength into seeking to know the Truth. For the sake of
completeness, we must ask the age-old question, “What is Truth?” And, the simple answer is, “Truth
is what God sees as objective reality.” Every moment has an actual content
of physical position, a content of momentum, radiating forces, impending
external forces, and intent.
The momentum will provide a large force directing us toward our
next moment’s position.
Likewise, external forces (spiritual or mechanical), seen or unseen
at the moment will influence us in the ensuing moments, and may overpower
and thus redirect our momentum.
As spiritual and physical beings, we have a place in the universe
as an active actor, and our presence, momentum and intent will inherently
influence the world around us.
And finally, our intent can introduce force into our own trajectory
and alter it. God has a plan,
a perfect template for our movement, and it is up to the individual to
seek and find His way, and in that way is the optimized life. Embedded into the very
essence of life is the fact that laws govern the very structure and
substance of the universe.
These universal laws of nature extend outward from the conscious
particulate understructure of nature, and they emanate outward from the
structure and nature of our soul.
Thus, the universal laws of nature penetrate into our volitional
world and require us to function in various ways to avoid pain, experience
pleasures, and maintain survival.
As a result of the boundaries of movement that were built into the
physical universe we can only follow certain paths. As a result of the boundaries of
pain built into the soul and the psychic universe, we are repelled from
engaging in activities that threaten life and well being. Regardless of our awareness
of God and His Law, we are all subject to it. Consciously acknowledged or
ignorant of the allowed pathways of the universe, they must be obeyed as a
fact of life; no man operates outside of God’s laws, we just fail to
optimize our experience by choosing a lesser subset of life rules. Attempting to escape and rebel
only initiates forces that move to restore the errant soul toward the path
of life. We may feel that we are
captains of our fate, and free to choose our moral standard. And, to an extent this is
true. We can direct our lives
toward a goal, and we may to a greater or lesser extent reach that goal,
but ultimately, if forces larger than our will and physical power direct
our lives and influence our minds, we will be blown by that wind. Disease, famine, war, pestilence,
quakes, weather and death all demonstrate the existence of a force larger
than our own. But these
forces are not random or mindless; they all work together to manifest
God’s purpose. The formative
source-power is awesome, mysterious.
Two paths can always be chosen, rebellion against God and
hopelessness, or Hope and Faith that all things are working to move us
toward the centerline of Righteousness and Truth. The framing of life as positive or
negative, hopeful or hopeless, hating God as evil or loving God as good,
seeing life as random or seeing life as God’s play, is our fundamental
power of controlling destiny. John, your premonition
dream years ago of the cars piling up behind you on the freeway; and then
shortly later in real life having a shopping cart actually appear in front
of you, swerving, and seeing the cars pile up behind you, was a graphic
illustration of the lawful, mechanical progression of life. It likewise demonstrated our
ability to intervene to a degree in the sequence of life's
progression. We live in a
Lawful universe, and we are subject to laws that in turn affect our sense
of satisfaction and sorrow.
Our free will is still operative even amidst this great mechanical
progression, and our free will choices determine to a great extent our
happiness and contentment with our state of life. Thus, the advantage to following
the patterns of the larger Lawful universe; we will benefit by patterning
our own lives along the paths of the God-given regulations and rules. We should follow the rules, not as
a mindless true believer, but rather as a man filled with the Spirit,
feeling, knowing, and riding the waves of direction by the Spirit. Such is where the mystery and
adventure of life is experienced at its maximum. We are called to combat the forces
of dissipation, disobedience and rebellion and enroll our fellow man in
the way of Truth. We are to
seek to manifest righteousness in the larger world by enrolling willing
men to labor in the service of the Spirit of God in manifesting his plan
of Goodness for mankind. Thus, “self-interest” is
just as important as “other-interest”, but both are subservient to the
superior Laws of God, nature, and Life. No real wisdom is possible until
we see the perspective of God.
Until then we simply speak from example, experience, cited
authority, or theory. Thus,
self-interest is only one of the factors which must guide life. To hold self-interest too highly,
places one of the gifts of God, one of his implanted desires, above God in
our hierarchy of respect.
When doing so we worship a false god, which produces its own
failures. The only best, most
satisfying paths of life are God's paths; all else are suboptimal dreams
and passions of man that seem good, but produce less fruit than the bounty
possible when following God's leading and way. We wish to progress from
our current government as a Constitutional, Corporate Representative,
semi-socialistic, Big Brother Nanny State, Globalist,
Industrial-Government Alliance, to the optimum balance of market and
government which we shall call "Limited Government". The following sequence may produce
this evolution. 1) Revival: This is a revival of the Spirit of
God moving with power across the nation, moving people to conviction,
repentance, and holiness.
Either a renewal of the majority of the nation, or all its leaders
must overtake the nation.
This could come by an act of war, natural calamity, Jesus returning
as King with Power, the Spirit of God moving on the hearts of men such as
in the First Great Awakening before the Revolutionary War, the Second
Great Awakening before the Civil War, or by convincing proof that God was
real by science or broad personal experience. When
the nation returns to God in a true, spirit-led way, where every man knows
that God is real, and that His way is True, then the entire framework and
spirit of the nation will change.
Until then, the battle will rage between government, industry,
nations, races, and the people.
Currently the battle for Godliness is being lost. The putative experts of our
Secular Humanist nation, the physicists, biologists, and psychologists
have used their interpretations of quantum mechanical uncertainty,
relativity, evolution, and psychology to deny the Truth of God’s existence
and give archeological, mythological, and theoretical credence to their
claims of humanistic divinity; and the people have followed these false
prophets like sheep. The
Humanistic path has won the hearts of man due to the combination of expert
opinions of doubters; the desire of man to be free of external regulation
so as to be a god subject to no one; the lack of concrete daily experience
of God, thus the plausible deniability of His existence; and God’s
allowance of immediate pleasure associated with following the flesh. As a
result of God’s non-existence in the minds of men, the passions of the
soul are elevated to the point that their satisfaction is the goal of
life, rather than being the gifts of God whose proper satisfaction give
life its texture and fullness.
Every thinking man knows that the pleasures of the flesh are
fleeting; that fame, gold, women, and power flare brightly, fade quickly,
and leave us depleted. The
long slow burn of moderation in all things, gives us the daily long term
satisfaction of a life well lived.
The life lived with such balance in all things is its own reward;
that path is the experience of Heaven on Earth, and the character one
develops living in such a way maximizes our pleasure and reward in the
life to come. Godliness in its most
practical terms means treating your neighbor, children, wife, employer,
employees, superiors, and institutions with proper respect and love. That respect and love may at times
appear more harsh than soft when discipline and boundaries must be
established. The violator
must be loved, but confronted, coached, and given proper instruction as to
the fair and right boundaries of his territory. Fairness, justice, kindness,
temperance, truth, and other virtues comprise the quiver of
Godliness. 2) After a national Revival
of Godliness, the sequences toward Limited Government may proceed from the
top down, commencing with the commitment of the nation to Godliness at the
highest level of national priority.
a) The reversal of Everson vs. Board of Education bill that
established by fiat Judicial activism the previously unknown, and
unconstitutional precedent of “Separation of Church and State”. b) The reversal of Judicial
decisions that take the 10 commandments from public buildings. c) The reversal of Judicial
decisions preventing prayer and Bible reading in school. With this restoration of law that
allows the next generation to carry on the faith of our Fathers, we can
without impediment reinstate the extension of Godliness to every phase of
government. 3) The sanctification
should proceed in a parallel fashion, with all members, groups, and strata
of society studying the Bible, learning the principles of Godly
relationship, debating and studying how this applies to their particular
life, making policy, and extending the discussion and enrollment to their
superiors and inferiors. If
we are to consider the transformation of the society from the top down, as
in a leadership model, then the highest ranking leaders (chief executive,
cabinet and judges) will be the leaders in establishing Godly policy in
their Agencies, and the leaders at each successive layer of management
would do the same. 4) The people have the
vote, and they must use their discrimination to elect governors,
legislators and judges who are mature in the faith, committed to putting
on Godliness and restoring our way of life to its Godly heritage. 5) They are at the heart of
the government, and give the laws its power by interpreting and enforcing
legislation. The bureaucrats
must frame their reading of legislation in terms of the spirit of
Godliness so as to properly direct the professions, trades, and
corporations in righteous activity. 6) The influence of
Godliness on the highest management throughout the society will trickle
down through the layers of managers and workers in the professions,
associations, administrative bureaucracies, corporations, managers,
professionals, families, and children. 7) The media biases and
shades the entirety of perceived reality. We no longer live in a world that
is directly perceived. Our
concept of the universe beyond our horizon is filtered, processed, and
presented through the lens of someone and their agenda. The Bill of Rights gave us freedom
of the press, but corporate interests, and biases toward social radicalism
have monopolized the information-space. They have directed our choices and
made voting an exercise in giving public support to private enterprise
large enough to pay for buying the public mind. Information must be made objective
by intent. Commentary should
be allowed, encouraged, and expected that frames the events of the day in
terms of Godliness. Many
commentators, and much debate should be offered, from many sides, but it
should overtly confront how the events relate to Godliness. As the society becomes more
and more righteous, as per Matthew 22, placing God's Law first in each
man's heart, and in turn loving neighbor as self, the society will become
more refined at each layer in its functioning and relationship in Godly
manners. The society is affected
from the top down, and the bottom up. As the people making up a group
become more Godly, and they learn to give and take equitably, the
professions and trades they occupy will become more Godly in their service
of society. As the
Associations learn Godly discipline, teaching, and regulation of their
members, then the Administrative layer of Government that regulates the
professions and trades becomes less necessary. Eventually the Associations of
professionals, trades, and corporations can take over the role of the
Administrative Law, and this layer of government, which is currently so
expensive and populous, can be largely eliminated. An example of a profession
regulating itself is seen in the Bar of lawyers, a privately operated,
self regulated, enforced, funded and administered group that is trusted by
society to maintain the standards of Godliness among their
practitioners. Of course
Godliness has been lost as the standard by which Lawyers regulate
themselves, and as a result, the trust society has placed in them is
unfounded. But, this is an
example of privatization of administrative law that has already been
implemented, and it also illustrates the futility of expecting that
privatization by itself will produce the intended result of moral
optimization of professional self-regulation. The same retreat of
Government may occur in all arenas of regulation: energy, education, law,
commerce, environment, etc.
When the commitment to Godliness in control of self and in
relationship to others is present, then there is no need for the
overbearing force of Government to enforce Godliness. Rather, when those in society
embrace Godliness as their primary directive and purpose, every layer and
element within each layer of government and private industry becomes an
agent of unified regulation to manifest the mind of Christ. When Godliness is the prime
directive of society at all levels, the layers of government become less
and less necessary.
Administrative government can be seen as a temporary teaching and
modeling role to guide the Associations into establishing the proper
machinery for Godly self-regulation.
The layers of regulation by government can thus be abandoned, as
their duties are relinquished to their corollaries in the private
sector. Of course the dismantling
of government agencies means that former public servants will be released
from their duties and must be re-integrated into life as private
employees. A note that may
provide a bridge is that they could migrate into jobs as officers of the
professional guilds in their regulatory functions. But ultimately, we wish to
increase the labor force and hope that most will retrain and become
productive members of society creating value by using their skills. The natural outcome of this
adoption of Godliness by the people, and their unions, associations, and
guilds is the diminishment of government. As Godliness and the training and
enforcement of right action is transferred to the people and their
privately run organs of self-regulation, many of government’s current
functions becomes largely unnecessary. Such is the goal of
Godliness, to let God be our king.
Note that the cry of the Revolutionary War was "No King but King
Jesus." This is the goal, to
have only righteousness and the spirit that directs righteousness be our
overarching ruler to which we all submit. Until we all bow at that altar, we
will be slaves of men and institutions that keep our animalistic passion
under foot. Such subjugation
is well and right and all that man deserves until he has put on the adult
maturity of Godliness. We
must ultimately subject ourselves willingly, with awe, respect, and love
to our Father God. He is the
source of all, and to whom we bow and worship for the magnificent
creation. The overarching problem
that must be solved is that, Jeremiah
17:9 "The heart is deceitful
above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" Thus, the self-interest of
man must be properly regulated in some way. The individual who asks for too
much is like a cancer, occupying too much space, and taking too many
resources. Those around him,
unless they are effective warriors that beat back the aggression, may be
damaged by his excessive consumption and occupation of space. If the individual grows in
influence and organizes a company, gets elected as a legislator, appointed
as a judge or administrator, he can extend his malignant influence to a
greater degree and cause an industry or governmental bureaucracy to
revolve around his desire for expansion of influence. There must be some force to oppose
the bullies and cancerous tumors of life, industry, and government. We should all have the
standard of perfection, the pattern of health, the Law of God in our
hearts, and when we see the invader, the unrighteous man and his action in
our midst, we should take it upon ourselves to exert a force to stop
him. Such is the place of
personal power. It is our
personal responsibility to make the world a Godly place by expelling the
evil which seeks to manifest through the hearts of men. When the bullies and tyrants of
youth are poorly controlled, they can become tyrants and lead a nation to
wars of aggression and enroll the entire world in destructive wars of
containment or defense. The
police with shiny badges and guns are needed and appreciated when they
enforce and judge according to the standards of Godliness, but when they
are the agents of bullies, tyrants, and megalomaniacs we shudder in their
presence and hate their subjugation. Thus, it is not government
that we hate, but unrighteous, unGodly government that we cannot
tolerate. It is the bonds of
evil, unGodliness, and the intrusion of the agents of Hell whose bonds we
seek to cast off. Limited Government is a
realistic goal as a later stage in the development of a Righteous
society. When a Godly
government develops, and the society follows suit (or is the reflection of
the righteousness of the people) the various layers of government may fall
off. When the government is
no longer needed to create and enforce the righteousness that we all
desire, government should follow the Framer’s intent of limited government
and cheerfully execute the process of dissolution and transfer power to
the private sector. This progression toward
dissolution of the bureaucracies will happen most strongly when the nation
has committed itself to Godliness.
The people will fear letting corporations, trades, and professions
rule themselves if no commitment to Godliness in that sector; the fox
should never be put in charge of watching the henhouse. To allow a self-interested
profession to regulate itself is to invite abuse in the form of bullies
and thieves. The primal desire of the
heart is to understand origin, and to feel complete in its relationship
with its creator on all levels.
If society has not embraced God as its overt source, then the
miraculous will be missing at some level, and the creatures will still be
longing for completion of their hearts’ desire. Taxes, for the purpose of
supporting the regulatory bureaucracy become less and less onerous as
government shrinks. But taxes
may take another form, such as association, bar, union, or guild
dues. If the need for group
coordination still exists, employees must be hired or volunteers must
execute those duties. Thus,
the forceful arm of coercion may not disappear completely even in the
post-Administrative Law era.
The professional standards must still be enforced, and due will go
to enforce our proper professional standards and duties. But, given the structure, where
the people will more readily submit to the jury and rules of their
colleagues. These laws,
regulations, and policies are self-imposed. Since the professional
associations are committed to righteousness, we know that the regulations
at least have the intent of Godliness. We can thus hope and expect that
the penalty for violations would actually reflect an appropriate
chastening that is needed to restore rather than mechanically punish. All, or almost all, of the
functions of Government should be possible to transfer to the private
sector when sufficient infrastructure in the private sector has been
established. But again, the
manifestation of Limited Government as a realized actual possibility
arises out of the intelligent expression of Godliness. The perfection of Godly and Lawful
Righteousness in a people makes Limited Government possible. T. |
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