Made to Behave
By Paxton Sawyer
Copyright© 2010
All Rights Reserved
Is it the best idea for a government to dictate the morals and values of a society? Dictators and tyrants need not worry about such issues. Whatever laws or rules they want to create are simply enforced. If I were a dictator, I would have some interesting rules to impose on my society. Rules that would bring me great joy and pleasure. A lot of people may not like them but, what would I care?
In a republican form of government, and the United States is a democratic republic not a democracy, the issue of the imposition of values becomes more tenuous. It is also much more open to question.
Of course, if you are one of the majority, you don’t mind when laws are passed that enforce your beliefs. Those laws don’t affect you or your behavior. But the majority of the public changes their mind on issues over time. What happens when those with values different from yours get in the majority and they make laws that adversely affect your beliefs and your behavior? You can’t really complain when they pass laws that reflect their beliefs. After all, you did it to them.
When you are lucky enough to live in a democratic republic, you should also be responsible enough to limit the activities of the government to the things that the government is actually responsible for. Those items are enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.
When the Constitution was signed, a reporter asked Benjamin Franklin: “What have you given us?”
Franklin answered: “A republic. We’ll see how long you can keep it.”
And the republic began to be diminished that very day.
All citizens and even the illegal aliens in this country scream that they want freedom. And they want it as long as they can enforce their will on others and so long as no one is responsible for their own actions.
If you want to be free, be responsible for yourself. Let others be responsible for themselves. If someone’s actions do not affect you, it’s none of your business.
If you are religious, remember this. God gave you free will. If He can allow others to make their own choices, why can’t you?
If you are a secular humanist, don’t you believe that you are your own supreme being? If you are supreme and you can decide for yourself and be responsible for yourself, aren’t you infringing on the supremacy of others when you want to force other people to behave as you do? Aren’t you then saying that you are supreme over others? Doesn’t that make you a god? The very thing you don’t believe in?
Churches were made to give support and guidance for moral values and issues. Of course, it is the failure of the churches to provide stability and a clear direction that leaves many people insecure. The churches don’t want to make a stand on any controversial issue as it may cost them members. The loss of members means the loss of income for the church. But, that is a different issue.
In future articles, we will look at and examine individual issues. There is nothing in life that is good that does not have a corresponding evil component. Be careful what you want. You may get it. And what you get may backfire.
