We’ve all heard slogans like this one: Why shouldn’t we take money from a billionaire who doesn’t need it, to feed a starving child? After that, it’s almost impossible to make any argument without appearing heartless. And there’s a good reason for that: The slogan conveys a “first position” that is deceptive and manipulative… idolatrous, really. This argument starts with an unspoken assumption that the state is beyond question and that any failures must be attributed to someone else. If there are starving kids, it could never be that the state was hurting them. Such a thought wouldn’t register. Embedded in these questions (and in the minds that form them) is a complete certainty that the state always functions as the agent of good. This is idolatry, the same as ancient people worshipping their city gods or medieval people holding their Holy Church above all question. In the same way, states are idols to modern people. The lines of thought are identical; the only changes involve the names of the idols – the entities that are given every benefit of the doubt at all times. The state, our modern idol, steals half of what every working person makes. That means that people are stripped bare for trying to do the right thing. But there is no compassion for them. And why is there no compassion for these people? Because it’s the state that is stripping them bare, and the state may never be accused; it may only be the agent of good! It really comes down to this: Whatever you esteem more highly than reality is your god. In our time, the thing that is held above reality is the state. One may critique its parts, but the state as a whole is only questioned by crazy, dangerous people. In other words, by heretics. What we are fighting is a different flavor of the dogma that kept medieval minds in chains. It may even be worse now.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:59:02 +0000
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