Sunday, July 04, 2021
The Most Moral Country in History
What is the most moral country in history? Without question, it is the United States of America. America is the only country founded on a genuine moral principle: individual liberty. There is, of course, a great deal packed into that single principle. There's an understanding of what man is and what each person legitimately owns. There's an understanding of the proper use of force, and the moral limits to its use. There's an understanding of what government is, and an understanding of how people voluntarily organize themselves into a society without using command and control as the glue. Properly, force is only to be used against those who would violently disrupt others' voluntary relations and personal lives. And there's an understanding of many more aspects of how the world works.
America is explicitly founded on these principles. These principles are universal. They are about man, not about this or that particular culture or nationality. America changed the entire meaning of a nation-state from a linguistic or cultural entity, to one with a shared set of principles (a subject for another post), and in America's case those principles are built on natural laws including laws of man's nature.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This is a statement about man, and society, and government. Every individual is a self-owning and self-responsible being. No one may claim authority over another.
"...to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Governments are created by us, to protect our rights, and any power they have is given by us.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."
There is no more radical, philosophical, fundamentally morally statement about freedom than this. Each one of us is a sovereign individual, for each of us our lives are our own to live as best we can. Because the freedom implied in this must be protected, and there are economies of scale in this, people can choose to institute collective defense, i.e. government. Only so long as government does its proper job is it legitimate. Once it fails and becomes destructive, it should be changed or abolished...by us.
The Declaration of Independence is America's founding document, and it is the greatest political document ever written and adopted. America is the greatest political endeavor ever undertaken.
Today many Americans don't understand this, unfortunately, and fall for ideas that are utterly opposed to these principles. Progressivism and other leftisms, including Nazism, fascism, and communism, as well as the anti-classical-liberal strains of conservatives, visualize an ideal and insist on removing constraints on government so they can force people to obey. They don't usually express it this way (in unguarded moments they do) but that's what unconstrained coercion always comes to. And while they promise utopia, their systems always result in putting into power people who subjugate everyone else to their will, oppressing those not in power. America is the most moral nation precisely because it is founded on the principles that are diametrically opposed to this sort of evil. America's principles are those of the Declaration, and implemented by the Constitution.
There is no more moral founding for any polity than that of America. America and American principles are to be defended and expanded and advanced throughout the world. Enemies of our principles, such as the current regime, their RINO collaborators, Beltway libertoonists who feign allegiance to liberty, and foreign enemies, are at war on them. We must fight and win, and that begins by understanding the principles and their importance. We at Unforeseen Contingencies invite everyone, in all countries, to celebrate American Independence Day with "us" by reading the Declaration of Independence, as we do each year. The principles therein aren't just for America, they are universal and timeless. Freedom for the individual means freedom for everyone. God bless America!
