Dear Friends,
It seems to me, natural duty demands that when confronted with pure evil, the only civilized reaction is to act in an uncivilized manner. If a man walks into a bathroom and sees a child being raped… it is his duty to react extremely violently, and he will have reacted in a civilized manner. Because civilization requires evil actions to be stopped, and evil is only stopped by violence, as in nature. This is the basis for natural duty. I argue here that the natural law of self protection extends to others as well. What is your personal definition of what it is to be a human being? If a human being is an autonomous agent, that seeks it’s own best interests… then we must also be morally bound to promote goodness and equality, because it is a self interested act. Natural duty comes as a consequence of natural rights.
To be a human being as opposed to something else, something less, is to take on the sins of the world. This is done through the understanding that we are all capable of great evil as well as great good. Put someone, who otherwise might have been a saint, into the wrong situation, and they could become a villain. You and I are just as susceptible to this as anyone. To be human then, is more than just to exist in the world, with the features of a homo sapiens, to be human is to learn, reason, understand, and once understanding is achieved, to lead by example. Understanding is the recognition of both our moral frailties as well as our duties under natural law. Because natural law does not only bestow Rights, it imposes duties as well… with Rights come responsibilities.
The Rights bestowed by natural law are enumerated in the United States founding documents, like the Federalist Papers, Anti Federalists, Common Sense, Notes on the State of Virginia, etc… it is through reading these works that one can come to an understanding of what the US founders believed were the Rights all human beings are endowed with, these Rights are unalienable, (cannot be taken away) and are universal. Limited government of the US kind, is only supposed to guarantee those natural Rights, and can only maintained by the people following natural duties, the duties that are also inherent in any Right. Since Rights do not exist in a vacuum, they exist in the context of humanity, government and interpersonal relationships, our Rights rest upon our willingness to do our natural duty.
Tocqueville’s self interest rightly understood is one way to understand what our duties are under natural law. In a state of nature, if you see a lion attacking another person, even someone you are not familiar with, who can deny it is a moral imperative to help? Only if one can be of immediate assistance of course, and if not, that lion must be hunted down and killed… for having got the taste for human flesh. If you find a well is poisoned your duty is to post a sign, if you find someone injured your duty is to help, if you see a snare your duty is to point it out, etc… These are the duties that come with natural rights. We have delegated those duties to government and charities, so much so that while we understand them at some basic level, we almost universally fail to put them into practice.
That is why someone can walk into a bathroom where a child is being raped, and say to themselves, “not my problem.” IT IS YOUR G D PROBLEM! If you fail to see that you are as guilty as the villain! What business is humanity to us? We are Humanity! It is what makes us human and not vermin, giving us Natural Rights, and the duties that come with those Rights. We cannot off load them to someone else. That is off loading our humanity. This is why we have a failing school system, cronyism, government corruption, drug epidemics, permanent wars, abortion as a fashion statement, constant crime, random violence, and the elite in Epstein’s black book getting away with child rape… because we have delegated our personal moral duties, to an impersonal immoral entity… run by psychopaths.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
