It must be remembered that 95 per cent of the peace, order, and
welfare existing in human society is always produced by the conscientious
practice of man-to-man justice and person-to-person charity. When any part
of this important domain of personal virtue is transferred to government,
that part is automatically released from the restraints of morality and
put into the area of conscienceless coercion. The field of personal
responsibility is thus reduced at the same time and to the same extent
that the boundaries of irresponsibility are enlarged.
Government cannot manage these fields of human welfare with the
justice, economy, and effectiveness that are possible when these same
fields are the direct responsibility of morally sensitive human beings.
This loss of justice, economy, and effectiveness is increased in the
proportion that such governmental management is centralized...
Government cannot make men good; neither can it make them prosperous
and happy. The evils in society are directly traceable to the vices of
individual human beings. At its best government may simply attack the
secondary manifestations of these vices. Their primary manifestations are
found in the pride, covetousness, lust, envy, sloth, and plain
incompetency of individual people. When government goes far beyond this
simple duty and deploys its forces along a broad, complicated front, under
a unified command, it invariably propagates the very evils that it is
designed to reduce.
In the sweet name of "human welfare" such a government begins to do
things that would be gravely offensive if done by individual citizens. The
government is urged to follow this course by people who consciously or
subconsciously seek an impersonal outlet for the "primaries" of human
weakness. An outlet in other words which will enable them to escape the
moral responsibility that would be involved in their personal commission
of these sins. As a convenience to this popular attitude we are assured
that "government should do for the people what the people are unable to do
for themselves." This is an exteremly dangerous definition of the purpose
of government. It is radically different from the purpose stated in the
Declaration of Independence; nevertheless it is now widely accepted as
correct.
Here is one example of centralized governmental operation: Paul wants
some of Peter's property. For moral as well as legal reasons, Paul is
unable personally to accomplish this desire. Paul therefore persuades the
government to tax Peter in order to provide funds with which the
government pays Paul a "subsidy." Paul now has what he wanted. His
conscience is clear and he has proceeded "according to law." Who could ask
for more? - why, Paul, of course, and at the very next opportunity. There
is nothing to stop him now except the eventual exhaustion of Peter's
resources.
The fact that there are millions of Pauls and Peters involved in such
transactions does not change their essential and common characteristic.
The Pauls have simply engaged the government "to do for them (the people)
that which they are unable to do for themselves." Had the Pauls done this
individually and directly without the help of government, each of them
would have been subject to fine and imprisonment. Futhermore, 95 per cent
of the Pauls would have refused to do this job because the moral
conscience of each Paul would have hurt them if they did. However, where
government does it for them, there is no prosecution and and no pain in
anybody's conscience. This encourages the unfortunate impression that by
using the ballot instead of a blackjack we may take whatever we please to
take from our neighbor's store of rights and immunities.
-- Clarence Manion
Clarence Manion was the Dean of the College of Law, Notre Dame University
at the time of publication of this article. Legalized Immorality is
extracted from his book, The Key to Peace (Heritage Foundation, 1950) and
published in Essays on Liberty (The Foundation for Economic Education,
Inc., 1952).
--
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William H. Geiger III http://www.openpgp.net
Geiger Consulting
Data Security & Cryptology Consulting
Programming, Networking, Analysis
PGP for OS/2: http://www.openpgp.net/pgp.html
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