Sophist Rhetoric Spanning Logical Chasms

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the adage, “Government is responsible for the welfare of it’s citizens,” is based on a false premise, that we the people, are incompetent to care for our own welfare. This type of sophist rhetoric is a major factor in why the economies of the Western World are declining. This pernicious notion has pervaded the zeitgeist, to such an extreme, that it is accepted without question. This leads to the Elite gaining power, and us, loosing liberty. If you are comfortable, loosing your liberty so the Elite can have more power, then you should stop reading now.

Our adage is an example of framing the subject. A question can be framed in many ways. The language that is used is the rhetoric the presumptions are the sophistry. Control of the rhetoric is a large portion of any argument in the public arena. Most of the audience to the debate, have lives to live, and have no time to look into every item independently, so we often go with out hearts. In this case framing the question is of paramount importance because it can bypass logic by appealing to emotion.

This gets a position accepted without argument. By framing the question in a manner that makes a logical leap has been known since the time of Socrates. It was the topic of Plato‘s book about Protagoras. The most well known modern example is the trial question, “when did you stop beating your wife?” This question has been framed such that it has been accepted, that the person questioned, beats his wife. In the case of the sophist argument, Government is responsible for the welfare of it’s citizens, the premise that the citizens are too incompetent to care for themselves is implicit in the assertion.

This conveniently omits, government is dependant on those incompetent’s, for everything and in every way. Government can only exist, as long as those governed, have sufficient funds for the Elite to take, to fund their operations. Once the Elite have spent the populace into poverty and destitution the government necessarily topples. But, until it topples, the more destitute the people become the more the government is required… to help. Look at Greece. How much longer will it hold out? It is now entirely supported by other governments.

The argument itself opens a whole avenue of potential government interventions in it’s citizens lives. The truly pernicious element, is that the argument makes intervention in the lives of it’s citizens, not only acceptable but a necessary part of governmental functions. Anti smoking regulations, anti obesity regulations, making the weight of a family’s children a matter of legal entanglement, monitoring of it’s citizens, as well as giant overarching laws like, Obama care, the Consumer protection agency, the EPA, and the FED, among others. More and more interference in our lives is justified by this, and other, sophistry.

Welfare is inextricably tied to a country’s economy. What else is more tied to the welfare of a people than their economic well being? This is an opening for the Elite to tinker with a country’s economy. Tinkering, that can only lead to the lowering of the general welfare, not increasing it. Because the Elite, have at the core of their ethos, a theory of power that matches Thrasymachus. They blindly follow Bastiat’s false concept of government. The concept that Bastiat gives in his book “The Law“, namely, that government is a means to loot the money of other factions, and protect the money of your faction, from being looted.

This is but one example, of how the progressives change the debate, to make their positions seem logical without there being any actual logic to them. Unfortunately, most people never look at the premise of an argument, we mostly look at the topic. The progressives always frame the debate with the help of the unbiased media. The two have gone hand in hand, getting the citizens of the World past giant logical chasms, with the use of this sophist bridge. Then, the Elite can ride their rhetorical limonene across, to the promised land of total government.

But don’t worry. This time our overlords will be benevolent… As long as we behave!

Sincerely,

John Pepin