The Real Destroyers of the Liberties
For centuries men have gathered together in order to institute forms of government to secure to themselves and their posterity natural rights. To guarantee the loyalty or fidelity of the members of their community or nation in the face of chaos and calamity, in what is often a perilous world, numerous methods and schemes of society and government have been relied upon or applied.
The symbiotic relationship of men and their governments, alters both men and their institutions. This change is wrought according to the spirit moving in the hearts and mind of the people. Government has no mind, no heart, no soul of its own. Its character is entirely dependent upon the character of the people who form it, give it purpose, and give it life. There seems to be two forms of fidelity at war in the formation of all governments, one born of the love of law, and the other born of the law of love.
Because the opinions of men are as varied as men themselves, we must define terms like law and love to understand the conflict.
“The laws of nature are most perfect and immutable; but the condition of human law is an unending succession, and there is nothing in it which can continue perpetually.
Human laws are born, live, and die.”
It is love of human law of which we speak. “The civil law is what a people establishes for itself.” That human law is dependent upon the moral character of the people who make it. The laws men make for themselves are created by contracts and constitutions, which requires the consent of the people. “All government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery!” This is because “What is mine cannot be taken away without consent.”
The Declaration of Independence was not about rebellion by the people, but the unwarranted usurpations of George III. Americans had begun to realize that with every right there is a concomitant responsibility. It was their uncommon struggle for centuries prior to the revolution, to bear those responsibilities that set Americans free. It was the daily unselfish sacrifice of settlers who cared for themselves and their neighbor, which set the spirit of liberty aflame in the hearts and minds of the people. The exercise of responsibility by those who came to America seeking civil and religious freedom had made the King's acts unwarranted usurpation of natural rights.
That Declaration did not complain of taxation without representation but, “For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:” Governments receive all their lawful power to govern through the consent of the governed. That consent is given by both executed and implied acts of agreement. Those agreements are the contract and “The contract makes the law.”
There is no perfect contract because there are no perfect men. Contracts create obligations and duties, and grant increasing degrees of power and authority. “Constantly bearing in mind that entering into society, individuals must give up a share of liberty…” The more we turn to government to obtain benefits, the less liberty the people have.
“Pacta sunt servanda.”
The more we seek to benefit from institutions of government the more we enter into its realm of authority and the less liberty we will have. The more we seek to provide for ourselves and our community without government, the more free we will become. “As long as we look to government to solve our problems, we will always suffer tyranny.” To love benefits offered at the price of someone else's liberty is to love the human law that provides them more than we love our neighbor.
There are also at least two kinds of love. There is the love for things that make us feel alive, and there is the love we have that gives life to others. The former is a selfish love, motivated, in some, by desire and narcissistic wantonness, while the latter is a love of sacrifice and of service. It is the dominance of one form of love or the other in the hearts of the people that determines the nature of their government, and the freedom and liberty enjoyed by the individuals in a society.
This is why the Bible tells us, in the words of both Moses and Christ, that we must love our neighbor, his rights, his life, and his liberty as much as we love our own. If we do not, then the government we create shall be more of a snare than a salvation. “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.”
“When people have to obey other people’s orders, equality is out of the question.”
The Bible warns us not to consent, not to make covenants or contracts, to not take oaths or swear, but most of all to not take benefits from men who can rule over us and our neighbor.
We are not to take benefits from rulers who call themselves benefactors, but exercise authority because they only offer to us what they have already taken from our neighbor. We know we are also not to covet our neighbors goods. Once we accept the idea that it is okay to take from our neighbor, if it is taken by government first, then a whole nation may be corrupted. “All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.” There are several reasons why we should not want to benefit from such a social scheme, but at least one is to keep us from being snared back into bondage.
Governments, or at least men who seek power, often offer benefits to get the people to enter deeper into the realm and authority of government, until what should have been for their welfare becomes a snare.
It was stated thousands of years ago that:
“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”
But, “No one is obliged to accept a benefit against his consent. But if he does not dissent, he will be considered as assenting.” So, who is the real destroyer of liberty? Is it the one who makes the offer or the one accepts it?
Have we sold our birth right for a pot of benefits? Men have lost their liberty in the land their fathers once struggled and died upon to establish freedom. They have become little more than human resources bound under human law. Though the responsibility of what we have become rests heavy on our own shoulders, there is hope, for those who will carry the burden of that common shame.
“Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”
We live in perilous times, but with change there will be choices. We may not be able to alter the course of history, but we may alter the path we choose to take through it. While no creation of an alternative institution or government may free us from or impair the obligation of contract, it may set a portion of society on the path to liberty that will sustain those who will seek righteousness under the law of love.
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