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First, for those interested in the stock market, I updated with links and corrections last week's blog. Click on the link to the upper right to see it.
I reviewed articles this week about Margaret Thatcher. I have the best ones for you. First watch this very short but marvelous video of Maggie debating a socialist in Parliament (two minutes):
Gap Between Rich and Poor
Do you grasp the power of this? This is at the crux of the debate in America. Socialism brings everybody down to achieve "income equality." Conservatism brings everybody up in the name of growth!
Obama's goals are the same as that British socialist. Every time he is asked about his goals for America, his answer is something about "fairness" and "redistribution." It is never about economic growth. See this great article:
Obama and Socialism
Finally, here are some penetrating Thatcher quotes (mostly from the article). Don't just gloss over them. Stop and cogitate on them:
"To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches."
"Communist regimes were not some unfortunate aberration, some historical deviation from a socialist ideal. They were the ultimate expression, unconstrained by democratic and electoral pressures, of what socialism is all about.... In short, the state [is] everything and the individual nothing."
"Socialism's results have ranged between the merely shabby and the truly catastrophic --poverty, strife, oppression and, on the killing fields of communism, the deaths this century of perhaps 100 million people. Against that doctrine was set a contrary, conservative belief in a law-governed liberty. It was this view which triumphed with the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. Since then, the Left has sought rehabilitation by distancing itself from its past."
"Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited."
"Good Conservatives always pay their bills. And on time. Not like the Socialists who run up other people's bills."
"We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state."
"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them."
"No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well."
"You know, if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn't you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing!"
Sincerely and hopefully,
Charles Meek
Off Grid Blogger
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The utopian perfectibility that liberals crave is detrimental to society--indeed, not even possible by government edict or by any human effort. Liberals are deceived in thinking they are working for good. The welfare state, while well-intentioned, institutionalizes indolence and poverty--and is thereby immoral. The result of the welfare state is not true charity; rather it is theft from one group to benefit another group in order to keep the latter on the dole for political votes.
While a just society will seek equality of opportunity and appropriate assistance for the truly needy, liberal redistribution schemes ultimately hurt both the recipients and the contributors. Wealth redistribution forced by the heavy hand of the state distorts the moral arrangement between parties when charity is freely given. There is a difference between a hand-up and a hand-out.
Biblically ordered liberty is moral. But liberalism in any of its forms, properly understood, are tyrannical. All forms of utopian statism have as their root the need to control other people by edict rather than by conscience. Statism is inherently inefficient, produces little, takes resources from the productive economy, and is therefore detrimental to growth and the welfare of a society.
Liberalism has everything turned on it head. It punishes achievement but rewards failure. Liberal thought is often opposed to objective moral values and is opposed to a moral authority above itself. Thus liberal thought says that rights come from government, rather the American ideal of unalienable rights from God. It is demonstrably true that little is sacred with liberalism outside of one's personal subjective feelings or political power--not the Bible, not the Constitution, not the Rule of Law, not natural law, nor even life itself.
Thus liberalism is the least likely system to honor the inherent worth of the individual, and the most likely to harm the most vulnerable in society such as the expendable elderly and the innocent unborn. Liberals' profession of tolerance is hypocritical as liberals certainly do not tolerate opposition to their errant views. Liberals are tolerant until you disagree; then you become a racist hillbilly. Indeed, the further left a society progresses the more it is intolerant and destructive--a fact proven time and again by history.
While liberals may be moral and well-intentioned in their own lives, their views are not consistent with what is good. In actuality liberals are working to tear down or distort everything that is good and elevate what is evil--including in art, music, culture, business, politics, science, sexuality, education, truth, beauty, justice, morality, and logic. So ironically liberalism is neither moral, compassionate, tolerant, nor effective. Christian capitalism is the most moral, leads to the most freedom, and produces the most economic benefits for society.
"One of the greatest mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results." --Milton Friedman
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