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From
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Speaking Safely on Public Issues
A Guide for the Confused
by George F. Smith
I offer the following guide for those Americans who may be asked to
speak on political issues but are confused about what to say. Since
issues can be annoyingly fickle — hot one day, dead the next — I've
tried to keep the commentary confined to the principles that underlie
them.
The most glaring fact common to all political issues is the monopoly
on coercive power we've assigned to the government. We have a
Constitution limiting that power, but it's been found guilty of
impeding progress and has been imprisoned in a glass case. Now mostly
unrestrained by that document, the government regards the private
sector as one vast bank account it can draw on without limit and as a
herd it will sacrifice any which way it can.
This change is no accident. People accepting certain tenets of Judeo-Christian ethics,
in otherworldly form or secular, fashioned the government to rule our lives like God
on earth or Big Brother. Which people? Political
candidates frothing altruistic bromides and the voters who empowered them. The
government has thus become a super-entity liberated from morality. It can do just
about anything and get away with it — even rewarded for it —
while we can do almost nothing that is not a crime. Americans once lived private
lives of productive pursuit and entrusted the government with national defense and
courts of law. Now almost everyone plays follow the mone
y by lobbying plunder-rich demagogues to protect their interests.
Thus, as you approach any political issue, think power — the coercive power of the
government. Think it — but don't say it.
Let's apply this advice to the idea of rights. It would be helpful to know what
"rights" means, but in political discourse defining your terms will offend your
audience. Thanks to government schooling, people believe anyo
ne can define anything any way they want. If you hit them with definitions, your
audience will think you're being disingenuous.
Instead of defining what you're talking about, say this: I believe in rights but I
also believe rights impose responsibilities.
At this point, pause and wait for a smattering of applause. Many Americans are sick of
talk about rights — rights, rights, rights, that's all they hear. They associate
rights with selfishness, which they connect with evil
. You're going to tell them something about responsibilities, and they like that. So
tell them rights are conditional. People don't get them unless they finish their
supper, so to speak. (Being folksy will help your case.
)
The word "impose" cues government to make its grand entrance. We don't have to wait
for people to choose to be responsible — Big Brother will make the choice for them.
It's part of the morality-is-commandments-from-a-high
er-power concept — the higher power personified by our elected elite, in this case.
Give your listeners a few examples to illustrate your meaning.
First example — your right to life. Yes, it's a right you have — provided you get off
your backside and earn it. It's your reward for serving others — "others" here
referring to your country. How you serve will be determi
ned by feckless bureaucrats. Traditionally, it means your country can draft you into
the army for the purpose of killing or intimidating its enemies. Of course, not
everyone is fit for draftee duty, which is why it's call
ed selective service. Those who can't make the cut militarily will be put to work in
some other altruistic fashion, most likely on the home front, but possibly in another
country.
Incidentally, you should get in the habit of saying "our country" instead of "our
government." It sounds patriotic and puts opposing views dangerously close to treason.
Never use "country" to refer to private individuals.
Here's another example — your right to keep the money you earn. No problem — but with
it comes the duty to help the underprivileged. You, being lucky enough to have a job,
have hogged more than your fair share if you're l
iving above the poverty line. Therefore, it is your country's responsibility to seize
what rightfully belongs to others and give it back to them, after skimming a dollar or
two off the top for overhead.
Discuss other rights in similar fashion — tell your audience you have rights only if
you pay your country back for giving them to you. Rights come with a bill, and the
collector is always Uncle Sam. This explains why we g
rant unlimited power to the government.
A corollary of conditional rights is unconditional entitlements. As the country
collects on your responsibilities, it has to do something with the loot. Since serving
others is the accepted moral ideal, establishing entit
lements completes the circuit of wealth transfer in a manner consistent with altruist
standards.
Here's where you can give your listeners some ammunition to use against mouthy civil
libertarians. Tell your audience entitlements is what our founders really had in mind
when they wrote about inalienable rights. Since, a
s we've seen, rights aren't inalienable, entitlements is what they were groping for in
their thinking. Entitlements are akin to charity — the main difference being the
little matter of coercion. Certainly our founders wer
e charitable men, so they must have been talking about entitlements for deserving
people — those who belong to any group with significant voting power. Entitlements are
simply expressions of common decency, a label certai
n to inhibit criticism.
Wrap up your talk with assertions about how wonderful it is to live in a democracy.
It's unlikely anyone will remind you we live in a republic, but if they do, tell them
modern republics are repressive and Americans prefe
r to follow the will of the people. It was the American will that established a
republic, and the current one that has put it to rest, under the banner of social
justice — another term you'll want to avoid defining.
George F. Smith ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is a freelance writer.
-30-
from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 6, No 1, January 7, 2002
End<{{{
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
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"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
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--- Ernest Hemingway
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