The Proper Role of Government
Cyril Grossé | 28 March, 2010
We live in a country where the people are informed primarily by the mainstream media and public education. These media are unwittingly endowed by the people with the responsibility of indoctrinating them as to the ways of politics, government and social justice. It is largely by this mode we see a shift in thinking, a deficit in understanding when it comes to the proper role of government of the Republic of the United States. We have forgotten that government was instituted by us, for us, to protect our rights from infringement from foreign or domestic imposition. Only by the rediscovery and exercise of our God-ordained Liberty do we stand a chance to escape the malevolent forces which seek to strip away our freedoms.
Signing of the Declaration of Independence (artist rendition)
On July 4, 1776, the last of the representatives of the original thirteen American colonies converged in Philadelphia to register into history its unanimous Declaration of Independence, the fundamental law of this great nation, the United States of America. Among other noteworthy statements, it was established therein that, “. . .all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .”
This was to be the beginning and foundation of American Jurisprudence; the document upon which the federal constitution would be constructed and the constitutions of the states would be derived. The principles engendered in this document are simple: 1) all men are created equal; 2) we have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, some of which include Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; 3) We institute a Government in order to secure these rights; 4) Government derives its power from the consent of the governed.
It is very clear, then, that government is an agent of the people; that its primary, if not soul purpose is to secure our rights. It is our servant which only has power to act that has been delegated to it by the People. Ergo, there are no powers of government that have not been so delegated by the People. This is an important, fundamental concept to keep in mind: The government has no power that we, the People do not give it. Further, any rights or powers not explicitly delegated to government remain with the people or to the states (see the U.S. Const. Amendment X).
Law is force; and serves to organize Justice. (The Law, Bastiat)
There is no right cognizable under the law which grants power to an individual to force another individual not convicted of a crime or tort to part with his property or to provide a good or a service without his consent. Inasmuch, there can be no right to such welfare-inspired services as Social Security, Education, Unemployment, or even Health Care.
The Origin of Legal Plunder
Man is motivated by two primary forces: physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement; and the avoidance of pain. The Law is designed to support, cultivate and protect the prior. The latter, however, is a human vice sitting squarely in the sights of legal plunder.
The Law provides that our exercise of Liberty affords us the free and inoffensive use of our faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. However, to this end, one must commit to nearly incessant labor and hope against the universal winds of probability that the profits of his toils will produce the desired outcome. But labor is pain; and in the shadow of every human ambition is the desire to avoid pain. Acknowledging this potentially destructive human vice, the politician may capitalize and seek to pervert the law in order to convince the people that the law, instead of an apparatus for the organization of justice, is used instead to minimize pain using the pretense of false philanthropy.
This is how legal plunder is promoted as a legitimate tool in the arsenal of the law. For it is simple to convince the uneducated, unguarded majority to vote for any measure which promises to reduce pain. These measures necessarily involve the transfer of wealth from a citizen without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud — to anyone who does not own it — and will be advertised under the various headings of government welfare programs such as “Public Education”, “Social Security” or “Health Care”. They will be popular especially among those who are poor and see the wealthy as perhaps having an unfair advantage. This is especially so when those who partake of these welfare benefits are protected by law from being prosecuted for plunder. Moreover, these same laws seek to penalize those who wish to mount a lawful defense of their property.
Herein lies the perversion of law. Law being used not to protect rights but to infringe on the rights of others; used not as an instrument of justice but of injustice.
False Philanthropy
Since the law organizes justice, the socialists ask why the law should not also organize labor, education, and religion. Why should not law be used for these purposes? Because it could not organize labor, education, and religion without infringing upon individual liberty, thus destroying justice.
The socialist politician or legislator which seeks to use the Law to organize a public benefit outside the purview of Law’s jurisdiction seeks also to deprive the citizen of his liberty. Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry under the auspices of philanthropy – or any other banner – without organizing injustice.
Liberty: the Great Equalizer
The mainstream media, public education and the status quo at large would have you believe that the administration of government is synonymous with the regulation of the distribution of wealth, but this cannot be accomplished without the unavoidable imposition upon individual freedom. A man cannot be both free and not free. This is the contradiction that arises when government is set to a purpose outside of its predetermined jurisdiction. The institution of Individual liberty recognizes that God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their destinies; and we being all subject to the same forces of chance, stand to realize that liberty affords the most fair, just distribution of merited resources that one could ever hope to be artificially implemented by man under color of law.
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